Qualcomm sues Apple for stealing trade secrets and giving them to Intel

Late last night on September 24 in San Diego, Qualcomm officially filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming that the company stole top-secret information and then provided it to Qualcomm's business rival Intel.

Qualcomm says that "vast swaths" of info was taken, and speaking to CNBC, Qualcomm's General Counsel Donald Rosenberg said, "unlawful use of Qualcomm's valuable trade secrets to try to help a competitor catch up irreparably harms us and must not be allowed to continue."

This accusation against Apple is the latest in a series of disputes between the two companies since last year.

Apple originally refused to pay Qualcomm royalties for chips used in earlier iPhones, and this has lead to a spiral of back and forths ever since. Qualcomm says that it would have filed this new lawsuit even if it wasn't already feuding with Apple, but considering the history between the two, Qualcomm's hoping the new charge forces Apple to settle.

A court date in April is still scheduled to hopefully lay all of this to rest.

Joe Maring

When Joe isn't acting as the News Editor for Android Central, he can be found helping out with articles here and there at iMore. He was last spotted at Starbucks surrounded by peppermint mochas. Have a tip? Send an email to joe.maring@mobilenations.com!