Qualcomm to refund $815 million to BlackBerry

Qualcomm for 5GUS-based chipset major Qualcomm will refund $814.9 million plus to the ailing smartphone company BlackBerry related to royalties for certain past sales of subscriber units.

Qualcomm in a statement issued on Wednesday said that it does not agree with the decision on the binding interim arbitration award.

BlackBerry and Qualcomm had agreed to arbitrate a contract dispute relating to one specific issue: whether Qualcomm’s voluntary per unit royalty cap program applied to BlackBerry’s non-refundable prepayments of royalties for sales of a specified number of subscriber units from 2010 through the end of 2015.

Qualcomm said decision is binding and not appealable. Qualcomm said the arbitration decision was limited to prepayment provisions unique to BlackBerry’s license agreement with Qualcomm and has no impact on agreements with any other licensee.