It appears Apple has tired of fighting global patent war with Taiwan’s HTC, maker of smartphones on Android and Windows platforms. As reported by different news agencies, Apple and HTC have announced that they have reached global patent settlement, bringing an end to all outstanding litigation between the two companies. The deal includes a 10-year licensing agreement over patents, HTC said in a statement, without providing further details.
“HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation,” HTC CEO Peter Chou said in the statement.
The investors in HTC have welcomed the weekend deal with the iPhone maker, bringing an end to all outstanding litigation between the two companies. Shares of HTC have surged by seven percent today in Taiwan. The prospective customers do not want to put their hard-earned money in the companies who are fighting endless battles where no company can be a clear winner especially in patent wars.
Apple sued HTC in 2010, accusing the Taiwanese handset company of infringing on the iPhone maker’s patented technology. It was Apple’s first major legal salvo against a manufacturer that used Google’s Android operating system.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said: “We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC.” “We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”
Apple has accused HTC and other smartphone makers using Google’s Android mobile operating system of infringing on Apple-held patents. Besides HTC, Apple is still fighting with Samsung patent war of huge magnitude and its litigation against Motorola has failed to produce any decisive wins.
It appears that better sense has started to prevail upon Apple who has decided to focus their energies on “product development” rather than filing lawsuits against their competitors. Despite winning verdict if $ 1.05 billion against Samsung, the South Korean smartphone giant is flourishing and has become no. one smartphone vendor in the world. Samsung is devoting much of its energies on product development and enhancements and Apple should also get rid of its legal instincts and come out with more innovative and path-breaking devices.
Hope, one day we will hear that Apple and Samsung have also reached settlement of global patent war! Everything is possible in love and war!
