Apple ordered to pull some iPhones from German stores after court case loss

US chipmaker Qualcomm Inc took steps to enforce a court order banning the sale of some iPhone models in Germany following a patent dispute, a move that will likely see Apple Inc pull those models from its German stores.

A spokesman for Gravis, Germany's biggest reseller of Apple products which is owned by telecoms company Freenet, said on Friday that it still had all Apple products on sale, including the iPhone 7 and 8 models.

The German case is Qualcomm's third major effort to secure a ban on Apple's lucrative iPhones over patent infringement allegations after similar moves in the United States and China, and is part of a global patent spat between the two companies.

Qualcomm posted bonds of  $1.5 billion on Thursday, as required for the German court order to come into effect. The court found on December 20 that Apple had infringed Qualcomm patents on power-saving technology used in smartphones.

Apple said in a statement after the verdict last month that it would pull iPhone 7 and 8 models from its own 15 retail stores in Germany during an appeal process once the order came into force.