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Oh, and another thing, Qualcomm tells court: Apple handed Intel our chipping source code

Cupertino: If you've got any evidence, bring it

Qualcomm has attempted to add another accusation to its 2017 lawsuit against Apple – this time claiming to a San Diego court that Cupertino wasn't just careless with proprietary info, but that it stole "vast swathes" of data to pass over to Intel.

The accusation comes in the form of an amendment filed on Monday to a lawsuit that first kicked off late last year. That complaint merely said Apple had "flouted its contractual secrecy obligation by sharing confidential info instead of safeguarding it".

Qualcomm's filing has asked the court to add an explosive new accusation to the case:

Apple has engaged in a years-long campaign of false promises, stealth and subterfuge designed to steal Qualcomm's confidential information and trade secrets for the purpose of improving the performance and accelerating time to market of lower quality modem chip sets, including those developed by Intel Corp.

An Apple counter-filing urged the court to compel Qualcomm to back up its allegations with evidence.

In a separate US federal court filing in August, Qualcomm demanded Chipzilla hand over "blueprints detailing Intel's cellular modems used in Apple's latest smartphones".

Qualcomm's November 2017 complaint alleged that Apple wasn't protecting Qualcomm information, and that its record-keeping made it hard to audit who had access to the information.

The court allowed Qualcomm to start the process of discovery, and the chip designer has now claimed Apple "repeatedly" handed source code and other proprietary data to Intel so its engineers could tweak their chips.

For some years, Apple used Qualcomm and Intel baseband chipsets in iPhones, but in 2016 it became clear that Intel's chips were underperforming.

This year Apple ditched Qualcomm amid worsening relations, and only uses Intel chipsets in the iPhone.

The court will hear Qualcomm's request to expand its complaint in November. The lawsuit is due to go to trial in April 2019. ®

* The case is Qualcomm Incorporated vs Apple Inc, case number 37-2017-00041389-CU-BC-NC, being heard in the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego (search here)

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