In January 2017 Patently Apple posted a report titled "The U.S. Fair Trade Commission Sues Qualcomm for Forcing Apple to use its Chips in iDevices." The ruling for that case was close at hand when Qualcomm and the FTC asked the judge to delay his ruling as the two parties try to find a settlement.

Patently Apple has covered the recent Qualcomm-Apple battles in Germany via FOSS Patent reports. Last week we posted a report titled "A Huge win: Munich Court Throws out Qualcomm Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Apple." Not much of late has been going Qualcomm's way and so a settlement with the FTC may be sought to avoid another outright loss.

Today Reuters is reporting that in a joint filing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, Qualcomm and the FTC asked a judge to delay ruling on the FTC's motion for partial summary judgment for 30 days.

Settling with U.S. regulators would be a turning point for the San Diego company, which has been defending its business model amid a barrage of lawsuits from large customers such as Apple Inc and Huawei Technologies Inc, as well as dealing with regulatory challenges to its practices around the world.

At issue in the civil litigation and regulatory disputes is whether Qualcomm's patent licensing practices, when combined with its chip business, constitute anticompetitive behavior. Regulators in South Korea and Taiwan initially ruled against Qualcomm, but it has appealed the rulings and settled some of them." For more on this, read the full Reuters report here.

A back door deal with the FTC wouldn't be good for Apple or Intel. A ruling finding that Qualcomm abused their monopoly position is the verdict that would help major industry players. Will the FTC stand their ground or buckle with the allure of Qualcomm's money? Here's to hoping that the FTC will stand by their moto of "Protecting America's Consumers." A ruling against Qualcomm would be a bullet in Qualcomm's legal battle with Apple.