Apple Signs New Deal With UK Chip Designer After Public Dispute

UK-based chipmaker Imagination Technologies on Thursday announced that Apple has signed a multi-year agreement with the company. Both the companies were earlier in a dispute over GPU designs that Apple licenses from Imagination for its iOS devices.

"Imagination Technologies ('Imagination') announces that it has replaced the multi-year, multi-use license agreement with Apple, first announced on February 6, 2014, with a new multi-year license agreement," the British chip-maker said in a statement.

Apple will have access to a wider range of Imagination's intellectual property in exchange for license fees, it added. In April 2017, Imagination announced that Apple planned to stop using the firm's IP in its hardware designs by 2019. It was reliant on licensing revenue from Apple which was nearly $81 million (roughly Rs. 577 crores) in fiscal 2017, reports AppleInsider.

Imagination then entered a "dispute resolution process", accusing Apple of "unauthorised use of Imagination's confidential information and Imagination's intellectual property rights."

During their dispute days, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker was even charged with allegedly poaching Imagination employees.

Apple said it stopped accepting new IP from Imagination in 2015. The embattled Imagination even found a buyer in China-backed equity firm Canyon Bridge. Apple used Imagination's PowerVR technology in its A-series system-on-chip designs found in certain iPads, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K. Subsequent A-series designs rely solely on Apple's in-house technology.

Imagination recently announced "IMG A-Series GPU" which claims to be the fastest GPU to date.