Qualcomm has been in the running for this prize for many years.
This is why many manufacturers would use modules instead of designing the chips into their own board. The module vendor would pay a royalty based on the price of the module, and then the end-product company would buy the modem and wouldn't be subject to this ridiculous tax on their product. The modem companies would also provide their customers with indemnification against any potential suits from Qualcomm, but there was always a bit of uncertainty around that, given that Qualcomm's IP division was so aggressive.
It's just incredible that they were able to get away with this for so long. I feel like there is another more investigative story to be written about the regulatory and political capture that Qualcomm must have done in order to keep this model rolling for 20 years.
― DJI, Thursday, 30 May 2019 21:09 (four years ago) link