The phone Kim's suing over was originally purchased from an authorized Apple seller in Vietnam in October , he said. The iPhone 12 was under Apple's warranty until October , he said. When Kim returned to the US during the pandemic, he was having trouble getting the phone to read a US sim card. So he called Apple, and they told him to bring it into a local Apple Store.
He didn't get an answer, he said. Instead, they returned the phone. But now it had a broken SIM tray, Kim said. Apple responded to that complaint, saying the iPhone would have been repaired if it had been broken while the company had it. Since Apple wouldn't fix the phone under the warranty - which Kim said was voided by the company - he offered to pay for the repair. But the company again refused, he said. He didn't hear back. So he turned to Google for ways to solve the problem.
The FTC's allegation to the contrary - the central thesis of the complaint - is wrong. The chipmaker has faced a series of antitrust rulings and investigations from other countries.
The company also had to lower royalty rates on patents used in China's mobile phone market. Qualcomm settles bribery allegations. US Federal Trade Commission. Image source, Getty Images. The swirl of litigation has recently got more serious, though. Earlier this month, Apple won a temporary injunction barring the distribution of Samsung's Galaxy Tab Although that injunction has since been suspended, Apple has filed a deeper complaint that aims to remove every Galaxy-branded Android device from sale across Europe, including the Galaxy S smart phones.
It's also training its sights on the Motorola Xoom. The official statements in most of these lawsuits are heavy on the faux-outrage, presenting the litigation as a principled stand against expensively developed intellectual property being wilfully stolen. And there's certainly an element of necessity to these lawsuits: if you have the patents, you're obliged to defend them or license them. But actually, a much bigger factor is the desire to take any steps possible to slow down rival companies in the current landgrab around the smart phone and tablet markets.
There is huge growth in both, as people buy their first tablet, and upgrade from a feature phone to something smarter. Much as we'd like to think technological innovation is the key to selling lots of devices, there's as much focus on litigation as a way to stop rivals from doing just that. Not least because if the goal is to get that rival to stump up licensing payments for every phone or tablet they sell, the prospect of those devices being removed from sale for even a month or two during this growth period is a handy lever to strike a deal.
If you're looking to buy a Galaxy Tab Otherwise, probably not. Most of these lawsuits will be settled either in or out of court in the end, with large sums of money changing hands before it ever gets to the point of products being whipped off the shelves. Even so, the patent warfare is having some much more visible effects too. There are dozens of reasons why Google shouldn't buy Motorola, most importantly the risk of alienating its other Android manufacturer partners.
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