News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Apple Debuts iPhone 16e by kmeisthax on Wednesday February 19, 2025 @06:50PM (#43109345)
All those patents are standards-essential, which means Qualcomm (and anyone else involved in the standardization process for cellular networks) has to license them under "FRAND[0]" terms, which at least for this scenario means "for the same price we'd license them to Samsung or Intel[1]". It also means that design-arounds are not possible; if you design a different technology from the one Qualcomm owns, you're not speaking 5G anymore. That's why we have these legal rules on standards-essential patents.

[0] Fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory. Each one of those words has a funny legal definition separate from whatever English you're thinking of.

[1] Who, incidentally, sold Apple the modem division that made the C1, because Intel is nothing but a bottomless pit of bad management decisions

Re:Apple Debuts iPhone 16e by throwaway4731 on Wednesday February 19, 2025 @08:18PM (#43109970)
I’ll admit with not being up to speed here, my information is actually fairly old, but Qualcomm is famous for skirting its FRAND obligations and as far as I know “no license, no chips” is still de rigor. https://www.sunsteinlaw.com/publications/no-license-no-chips...