Apple says it will stop selling iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in its 15 retail stores across Germany after Qualcomm was granted an injunction by a Munich court
and Are Not—Banned In Two Countries Tweets: Nati Shochat / @natisho : “Apple says it will stop selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 at its stores in Germany. But all iPhone models will be available at third-party retailers in the country.” That's a 2:1 for Qualcomm in 10 days. https://www.cnbc.com/... Daniel Newman / @danielnewmanuv : First China, now Germany. Different patent violations, but once again #Apple found violating Qualcomm's IP. Also, no software workaround for this one as it is hardware related. -> Germany to ban some #iPhone sales following Qualcomm patent case ruling. https://buff.ly/2rOAkL8 pic.twitter.com/021suoR7S1 Ben Wood / @benwood : The game of cat and mouse between @Apple and @Qualcomm continues as @FT reports Apple has tweaked iPhone software for users in Germany where infringement litigation is in process. http://www.ft.com/... via @Tim http://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the second jurisdiction in ten days where Qualcomm has converted its patent portfolio into a sales ban on Apple hardware: a Chinese court issued a preliminary injunction covering iPhone 6s through X just before the Munich ruling, which Apple appealed in China. The German case differs in one consequential way flagged by analysts at the time — the infringed patents relate to hardware, so there is no software workaround available.
The scope of the German ban is deliberately narrow: only Apple's own 15 retail stores are affected, while all iPhone models remain available through third-party retailers in the country. Notably, a separate German court later dismissed Qualcomm's other patent claim against Apple in January, showing the campaign was not uniformly successful even within Germany.
First-order effects
- Apple immediately pulls the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 from its own 15 German stores, though third-party retailers can keep selling every model, limiting the direct revenue hit.
- Qualcomm holds enforceable injunctions against Apple in two major markets simultaneously — China and Germany — giving it leverage in the broader royalty dispute that neither side can ignore.
Second-order effects
- Because the German patents cover hardware rather than software, Apple cannot patch its way out; the eventual path back to market runs through Qualcomm itself, and indeed Apple resumed sales in Germany using only Qualcomm chips after saying it had 'no choice' but to stop using Intel modems in those models when it resumed sales.
- Intel, Apple's alternative modem supplier, loses ground in the dispute's wake: every injunction that forces a Qualcomm-chip-only configuration shrinks Intel's share of Apple's baseband business.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, patent holders with standard-essential portfolios will increasingly use country-by-country injunctions against global product lines rather than waiting for negotiated settlements — turning national courts into leverage points in cross-border licensing talks.
- Dual-sourcing strategies for critical components become harder to defend when a single supplier can litigate rivals' chips out of key markets, pushing large OEMs toward sole-source relationships or deeper vertical integration.
The trend: Qualcomm is waging a multi-jurisdictional injunction campaign that converts its patent portfolio into negotiating leverage over Apple's component sourcing.