It would seem that the patent wars between Apple and HTC
are no more as both camps have released a statement detailing a 10 year
settlement between them. This is a monumental development for not just
the two companies themselves, but for the legal universe surrounding
technology and gadgets on the whole. As for HTC and Apple, they’ve made
it clear that this agreements means they’ll be able to focus on product
innovation for a long time to come.
The two groups reported from Taipei and
Cupertino with news that today, November 11th, 2012 (depending on where
you live, of course), they’ve reached a “global settlement” that will
take them both out of battles between one another for a full ten years
at least. The agreement they’ve made will be covering not just current
patents, but past and future patents as well. Both HTC and Apple have
sent out short comments on the matter as well.
HTC and Apple have reached a global settlement that
includes the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license
agreement. The license at hand extends to current and future patents
held by both parties. The terms of the settlement are confidential.
“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.”
This agreement was accompanied by a note “All patent litigation
between the companies dismissed.” Now we’ve got to wonder if this means
that further agreements will be had between titans such as Samsung, LG,
Microsoft, and the rest, or if this is simply one perfect storm for the
betterment of these two companies. Specific details of the agreement are
not (yet) public, but both groups have certainly made it clear that
this is a very good thing for the future of device manufacturing and
development.
As it’s not specified, we must also assume that this agreement fits
both software and hardware patents, this possibly leading toward an
agreement with Google in the future for their Android mobile operating
system that HTC makes use of in their smartphone devices. As it stands,
Google and Apple have not made any statement to substantiate such an
assumption – stay tuned!
