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Apple and HTC dismiss lawsuits, forge licensing agreement

by Mark Tyson on 12 November 2012, 11:00

Tags: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), iPhone, HTC (TPE:2498), PC

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On Saturday Apple and HTC settled their long-running patent wrangling and announced that they had formulated a 10 year licensing agreement. The battle between these two tech companies started in March 2010 with a patent suit instigated by Apple, in May the same year a counter-suit was launched by HTC.

The statement regarding the new 10 year licensing agreement is very concise and starts by saying simply that “HTC and Apple have reached a global settlement that includes the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license agreement”. Unfortunately for nosy tech industry watchers “the terms of the settlement are confidential” so there is no indication of either party getting the better end of the deal here. For the next 10 years relations between Apple and HTC should be much smoother as the “license extends to current and future patents held by both parties”.

Both the Apple and HTC CEOs put together a short statement saying how their respective companies can now focus on innovation rather than the legal battling we hear about so often recently. (Yes, I prefer to report on tech innovations than legal disputes!) Here’s what the two CEO’s said about the new agreement:

“HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC.

“We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC,” said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. “We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”

Let us hope more agreements can be struck within the tech industry and particularly that Apple’s “laser focus” on innovation isn’t deflected by a legal prism.



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Apple didnt see the point as they sold so little devices so gave up and licensed everything…probably :P.
It's difficult not to take a cynical look and think that Apple have lost interest in pursuing HTC now that sales have dropped and they're not the hot competition… the weaponised laser focus has changed to Samsung at the moment.
I bet Google and Microsoft have taken a special interest in this news. HTC could be the hot faviorate to promote their OS's given that Apple isn't breathing down their necks
Mr Jobs will be turning in his grave!

This must be because HTC had a genuine threat of putting a sales block on the iPhone 5 due to LTE patents. Right before christmas time that would be bad news for Apple so perhaps they were forced into discussion to avoid such a disaster.

I was wondering why everything had gone quiet on that front, i wonder what Samsung will do about their alleged LTE patent issues?

Either way its a step in the right direction IMO, would have been nice if Apple had at least one sales block against them so that they could have a taste of their own medicine though!
I think Apple are starting to recognise that they can't fight literally everyone. How long can they stand on their pedestal? Who knows…