Qualcomm Technologies Inc.’s chief executive officer has broken his silence on the company’s ongoing legal wrangles with Apple Inc., making comments that suggest he wants the dispute to be settled out of court.

Steve Mollenkopf made the comments during an appearance at the Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado, Fortune reported. He suggested that the mobile chipmaker would try to reach a settlement instead of relying on a jury to decide the outcome of the case.

“There’s not really anything new going on,” Mollenkopf said. “Those things tend to get to resolved out of court and there’s no reason why I wouldn’t expect that to be the case here.”

Mollenkopf was referring to a legal challenge that was initiated by Apple earlier this year. The iPhone maker has accused Qualcomm of gouging its customers by charging for royalties on patents they don’t use. Apple is suing the company for $1 billion and has instructed its components suppliers and other partners not to pay any more licensing fees to Qualcomm until the case has been resolved.

For its part, Qualcomm has filed a counter-lawsuit against Apple alleging patent infringement. It also recently asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban the import of some iPhone and iPad models that it says infringes on its patents. Meanwhile, the company also told shareholders that Apple’s refusal to pay royalties is likely to have a big impact on its second-quarter earnings, which it will report Wednesday.

“We have a contract, and people want to pay less on the contract, and there is a lot of worldwide maneuvering involved,” Mollenkopf said. “Our perspective is pretty simple – that contract has been in existence for a long time.”

That Mollenkopf decided to speak publicly about the case is surprising, but the fact that Qualcomm seemingly prefers to settle out of court isn’t. After all, Qualcomm cannot afford to lose Apple as a customer, and Apple is still reliant on Qualcomm to build its phones and tablets, so a relativelt friendly negotiation is in both parties’ interests.

No doubt, both companies will be pressuring their legal teams behind the scenes to negotiate a settlement before the case goes to court next year.

Image: Qualcomm