Qualcomm scored a small win in court last week from an unlikely source – Apple.

The chip manufacturer is currently embroiled in a legal battle against the US Federal Trade Commission which alleges Qualcomm used its market dominance to force phonemakers to pay massive licensing fees.

So, on to the win. During testimony on 18th January Apple director of cellular systems architecture, Matthias Sauer testified that Qualcomm was the only supplier which catered to its needs for an LTE chip.

As reported by Bloomberg, Apple reportedly approached Ericsson, Broadcom and Intel as early as 2012 for LTE chips. As Sauer paints it, none of those firms could meet Apple’s desired specifications and wouldn’t be able to until Apple shipped the iPhone 7 in 2016.

Earlier in the week US District Judge Lucy Koh heard from a number of industry representatives that “Qualcomm has historically relied on its market dominance to lean on partners to agree to licensing payments when negotiating chip sales,” Bloomberg reported.

Closing arguments in this case are expected to start on 1st February and while things don’t look great for Qualcomm, Friday’s testimony from Apple might help the firm argue that it should be fairly compensated for the work it does.

That having been said, perhaps this whole affair will prompt Qualcomm to reconsider charging a fee for the tech and a licensing fee on top of that.