Apple suppliers sued by Qualcom over unpaid royalties

Qualcomm extends fight with Apple to its contract manufacturers: Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron and Compal

Manufacturers in the Far East making Apple iPhones, iPads and other devices have been sued by Qualcomm over what it claims are unpaid royalties, after being instructed by Apple not to respond to Qualcomm's demands.

A complaint filed by Qualcomm this week in the Southern District of California demands that Foxconn, Pegatron, Wistron and Compal hand over royalty payments in line with their contracts, along with as well as coughing up damages and "declaratory relief".

It comes after Apple instructed its Chinese suppliers to withhold royalty payments while it fights the chip-maker in row over patent payments.

Don Rosenberg, executive vice president and general counsel of Qualcomm, said in a statement: "We cannot allow these manufacturers and Apple to use our valuable intellectual property without paying the fair and reasonable royalties to which they have agreed.

"As Apple continues to collect billions of dollars from consumer sales of its Qualcomm-enabled products, it is using its market power as the wealthiest company in the world to try to coerce unfair and unreasonable license terms from Qualcomm in its global attack on the company."

Apple hasn't commented, but has long-claimed that Qualcomm is "unfairly insisting on charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with.

"Qualcomm built its business on older, legacy standards but reinforces its dominance through exclusionary tactics and excessive royalties," Apple claimed in an earlier statement.

It continued: "Despite being just one of over a dozen companies that contributed to basic cellular standards, Qualcomm insists on charging Apple at least five times more in payments than all the other cellular patent licensors we have agreements with combined."

Qualcomm and Apple have been facing off since January, when the FTC complained that Qualcomm had engaged in anticompetitive patent licensing practices by bribing Apple to use its chips in iPhones and iPads Later that month, Apple slapped Qualcomm with a lawsuit of its own, alleging that the firm charged firm deliberately overcharged for its technologies and refused to cough-up promised rebates.

Qualcomm fired back, and in April it threw some sass in the direction of Apple and has hit back at the firm with a counter lawsuit. It accused the iPhone maker of breaching licensing agreements, making false statements about the performance of its chips, and encouraging regulatory attacks against Qualcomm's business.

Qualcomm earlier this month took things a step further, and announced that it will be seeking an iPhone sales ban in the US.