Edible Apple

As part of Apple’s defense against Samsung’s claims that iOS products infringe upon certain wireless patents owned by Samsung, Apple argues that they have an implied license via Qualcomm to those patents. In other words, because Qualcomm is licensed to use the patents at issue, Apple’s own contract with Qualcomm to provide the baseband chips in iOS products precludes Samsung from going after Apple.

To that end, Bloomberg is reporting that both Intel and Qualcomm have given Apple source code that will help it defend itself against Samsung.

Attorneys in the U.S. have inspected the code and Intel and Qualcomm have agreed to provide it to lawyers involved in a patent dispute in Australia, Andrew Fox, Apple’s lawyer, said at a hearing in Sydney today.

“Further non-infringing arguments can be made from that” disclosure of the source code, Fox said today.

Apple and Samsung, the largest maker of mobile phones, are preparing for the start of a trial in which the companies accuse each other of infringing patents. They have filed at least 30 suits on four continents against each other in the past year after talks initiated by former Apple founder Steve Jobs to resolve the disputes broke down.

Though Samsung and Apple continue to go after one another in the courtroom, a recent report, citing people familiar with Apple, noted that top executives from each respective company have “communicated lately about potential settlement options.”