Apple’s ongoing patent spat with Samsung has been particularly interesting over the past week due to the involvement of HTC. The Cupertino company reached a licensing agreement with the Taiwanese outfit ten days ago, but Samsung has since demanded Apple hand over details of said agreement, claiming they could be relevant to its own case with Apple.
In some ways, you can certainly understand Samsung’s grievances. The Korean giant feels as though Apple, which has claimed the only way the current litigation can be solved is with license payments, is simply trying to block as many Samsung sales possible. But while HTC may be extremely happy at the outcome of its litigation with Apple, Samsung has no intention of following suit.
The Apple-HTC pact is of great interest to Samsung, but given the history between the fruit company and the Galaxy vendor, it was clear the request was never going to be met with the hoped response. Naturally, Apple is playing hardball, and while it has decided Samsung can see the contents of the agreement, all key information will be blanked out.
The redacted document will be marked as “Highly Confidential," and for "Attorneys’ Eyes Only,” but will only contain a total of 33 words. As we know, a licensing agreement pertaining billions of dollars and spanning a decade between two large companies would, without a shadow of doubt, be pages long, but this heavily abridged offering is simply a method through which Apple seeks to agitate its rival once more.
Apple adds that Samsung offers no reason as to why the royalty figures are of any significance to its permanent injunction. Analysts watching the case between Apple and HTC have suggested the subsequent ten-year licensing agreement will see the One X maker pay around $6-$8 per Android handset sold, which may equate to 3 billion plus dollars during the next decade – taking into account current sales figures. HTC’s CEO Peter Chou has quashed that particular notion, but hasn’t gone so far as to reveal the specifics.
From an outsider’s point of view, I would certainly be interested to see exactly how Apple and HTC came to an amicable solution, and if Samsung has its way, it may well be that those details could soon reach the public domain.
(via FOSSPatents)
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