Qualcomm hasn’t been very successful with its licensing practices. It’s gotten into trouble for charging phone makers over an “unnecessarily broad set of patents” It has also been dealing with lawsuits from the FTC and Apple for similar tactics. Qualcomm was ordered to pay BlackBerry $815 million in an arbitration settlement last April. BlackBerry announced that the two companies have reached a final agreement amount of $940 miillion, which includes the original arbitration amount along with interest and attorneys’ fees. The release says that Qualcomm will pay the full amount before the end of May. And guess what? Shares of BlackBerry inched upward after the company said Qualcomm would pay $940 million to settle a licensing dispute.
The two were disputing “whether Qualcomm’s agreement to cap certain royalties applied to payments made by BlackBerry under a license agreement between the parties.” The binding arbitration settlement determined that Qualcomm’s agreement did in fact apply to such payments, resulting in BlackBerry paying Qualcomm too much money over several years’ time. The agreement is final and Qualcomm cannot appeal. Qualcomm will make the full $940 million payment May 31.
BlackBerry has been trying to change its fortune after getting out of phone design. It brought in $286 million in revenue last quarter, making this $940 million settlement a much-needed infusion of cash to can help the beleaguered company pivot towards self-driving cars. For its part, Qualcomm seems to be weathering the storm of lawsuits and anti-trust fines with countersuits and settlements like the current BlackBerry agreement. Qualcomm’s chips power a large number of mobile devices, with a Snapdragon system-on-chips in high-end Android phones. The company also continues to expand to as many other devices as possible, including IoT and connected cars.
