It’s been an expensive week for Qualcomm - $815mn expensive

Qualcomm has been ordered to refund Blackberry $815 million owing to royalties the Canadian smartphone maker overpaid between 2010 and 2015.

While an $815 million bill isn’t the most ideal way to head into the summer, this figure doesn’t yet include interest or attorney fees; looks like it’s the caravan for the summer holidays this year. The chipmaker announced the decision on its blog, but wasn’t bitter at all…

“While Qualcomm does not agree with the decision, it is binding and not appealable. The arbitration decision was limited to prepayment provisions unique to BlackBerry’s license agreement with Qualcomm and has no impact on agreements with any other licensee.”

Although the royalties structure has not come to light as of yet, Blackberry claimed there was supposed to be a cap on the amount which it paid to the chipmaker, which wasn’t applied at the time. It’s certainly another unwelcome blow to Qualcomm, which seems to be in a never ending battle to defend its patent business. There are certainly punches raining in from all angles at the moment.

Aside from this battle, Apple is suing the giant in three different countries, while the Federal Trade Commission in the US is also suing on the ground of anti-competition.

A couple of weeks ago, the Telecoms.com team were discussing how Blackberry could continue to operate and where it was going to make any substantial revenues. Maybe if it could find enough people to sue it could turn itself back into quite a profitable business.