Qualcomm sues Apple over alleged mishandling of confidental data

Qualcomm has filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging that the company shared confidential information on Qualcomm's modem parts and other technologies with rival Intel, using its leverage as one of Qualcomm's biggest customers to demand ever-deeper access into the company's inner workings.

Following a string of legal arguments between the two companies which have seen Apple suing Qualcomm over withheld royalties and Qualcomm suing Apple over alleged anticompetitive practices and artificial performance restriction of Qualcomm parts, Qualcomm has filed yet another suit against Apple alleging that the company shared confidential information on Qualcomm's baseband processors and modem parts with Intel to assist the company in making a competing product.

In coverage of the suit on newswire service Reuters it is stated that Qualcomm's claims include requests from Apple for 'highly confidential' information about Qualcomm's products and technologies which it then shared via email to an Intel engineer and one instance of an Apple engineer working on internal products designed to compete with Qualcomm's own requesting that a colleague working with Qualcomm itself ask for additional technical information. Both, Qualcomm claims, are in direct breach of Apple's contract with the company, which directly prevents it from sharing confidential information with Intel.

The filing comes following reports that Apple would be dropping Qualcomm as a supplier of modem and baseband processors altogether from 2018 onwards in favour of Intel parts, news which saw Qualcomm's share price drop around 6.7 percent. Neither Intel nor Apple have commented on the filing.