Apple to ship iPhones with only Qualcomm chips to German stores

Apple Inc said Thursday that it will resume selling older iPhone models in its stores in Germany, where they were banned last year due to a patent infringement ruling.

The iPhones will be sold in Germany only with chips from Qualcomm Inc, instead of a mix of chips from Qualcomm and Intel Corp. Qualcomm is in a global legal battle against Cupertino-based Apple over patent licensing, and the German case was part of the chip supplier’s efforts to rack up smaller wins ahead of a major lawsuit with Apple that goes to trial in April in San Diego. Qualcomm last year also won a ban on sales of some iPhones in China.

Apple said it had “no choice” but to stop using some chips from Intel Corp in iPhones headed to Germany in order to comply with the patent infringement ruling.