Apple will suspend the sale of the iPhone 7 and 8 in its stores in Germany, following a court decision in Munich, which upheld a request from component manufacturer Qualcomm about an alleged patent infringement for battery management on smartphones. Apple is working to appeal, but in the meantime it will continue to sell the iPhone XS and XR in its stores, because they are not involved in the legal matter. The iPhones 7 and 8 will still be available in German technology stores and telephone operators. For Qualcomm it is the second important judicial victory after the one obtained a few days ago in China, again for the alleged infringement of some patents. Apple had suspended sales in that case as well, but it seems to have recently solved the problem by rolling out an operating system update for iPhones in China, which removes the patented features from Qualcomm. The case of Germany seems to be more complicated to solve because it concerns a functionality related to hardware, rather than software. The legal confrontation between Apple and Qualcomm has been going on for months, with mutual accusations of infringement of competition, patents and unjustified price increases for some components.
