Qualcomm Inc.’s lucrative patent licensing business lives on, after a court rejected a requirement that the company renegotiate billions of dollars worth of agreements with smartphone makers.
The chipmaker won a major victory Tuesday in a federal appeals court, which ruled that a judge was wrong to side with the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 in finding that Qualcomm had violated antitrust law. The appeals court also vacated an order that the company redo licensing accords with smartphone makers like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Such licenses generated $4.6 billion in revenue for Qualcomm last year.