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Like Samsung, HTC has also been having some arguments with Apple over patents. But in this case, the argument hasn’t escalated to a billion dollar lawsuit. Instead, it just ended rather peacefully. Apple and HTC agreed to quit fighting by signing a 10-year licensing deal covering past and future patents.
The two companies had been sparring back in 2010, when Apple was pushing for a US ban on HTC phones, but things seem to have gotten significantly less hostile between now and then. The two companies had the following to say:
“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.”
The pair of statements pretty clearly imply that the companies find patent litigation to be a waste of time when they could be innovating instead, at least in this specific case. The financial terms of the agreement are confidential however, so who knows how much money may have changed hands to make this go away. But in any case, the two companies were able to reach an agreement without litigation, which is certainly an improvement. The less money they spend on lawyers, the more they can spend on making cool stuff we can buy, in theory at least. [The Next Web]
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I bet HTC are paying something ridiculous like £10 per phone or something.
Funny how now that HTC has fallen behind Samsung since 2010, Apple settles with them, yet it’s all guns blazing with Samsung.
Exactly, HTC’s no longer a threat hence not worth all the trouble for Apple.
Perhaps HTC’s poor performance of late is a cunning ploy to make Apple underestimate them. Now they can release their One X++ and blow the competition out the water without fear of litigation from Apple!
Or perhaps not. I feel sorry for HTC, their admission that they were releasing too many devices per year and move towards one main phone (One) was a step in the right direction, yet it doesn’t seem to have worked out for them =/
Then they continued on to make absolutely stellar windows phone 8 devices….only to be overshadowed by Nokia. Kids can’t catch a break it seems.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Apple will treat every other company with a different set of rules to those for Samsung, no other company have tried to copy Apple products in the same way as Samsung, no brainier I guess. And any agreement will be for sharing of technology patents, I don’t think it would allow for a HTC phone which looks very close to the design of a apple device..
I hate the port on the iPad 2, who designed that on a slope? So stupid because every time you try to put it in you end up slipping out the back.
said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. “We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”
That’ll be a first then