Qualcomm helped create the smartphone as we know it. Its patents are part of the standard for modern wireless broadband systems, and the company is now the world’s largest producer of baseband processors — the modem chip that lets phones connect to data networks. But over the next few weeks, a judge will determine whether Qualcomm abused that power, hearing a complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission in 2017.
The Qualcomm trial started on January 4th, and it will run through January 28th. After that, Judge Lucy Koh — the California district judge who presided over Apple and Samsung’s massive patent infringement trial — will have to decide whether Qualcomm unfairly monopolized the baseband processor market. Here’s why the case...