London, July 5 (IANS): Britain-based chip design firm Imagination Technologies has accused Apple of breaching its own ethics as the dispute between the two companies turned bitter.

In an earning report, Imagination's CEO Andrew Heath said Apple's claims that the iPhone maker would no longer need to pay royalties were "unsubstantiated" and labelled Apple's actions unacceptable, The Telegraph reported late on Tuesday.

"We do not believe this to be acceptable business practice nor in line with Apple's own ethics statements regarding suppliers," Heath was quoted as saying.

Apple used Imagination's technology and intellectual property for years until this April when the tech giant said it would take the graphics technology in-house and no longer rely on Imagination's patents. 

Imagination thinks it would be extremely challenging to design a brand new GPU architecture from basics without infringing on its intellectual property rights -- accordingly Imagination does not accept Apple's assertions.

Imagination official said there had been no progress on the dispute with Apple and that it is reviewing its options, suggesting legal action is a possibility.