“Elan Microelectronics Corp., a Taiwanese touch design company, said on Thursday that Apple Inc will pay $5 million as part of a settlement in a patent infringement case,” Reuters reports. “The statement said the two companies would also exchange authorisations to use each other’s patents.”
“In 2009, Elan sued Apple in the United States over two patent infringements and the California-based giant counter-sued later the same year,” Reuters reports. “The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favour of Apple in June last year, saying Apple had not violated U.S. trade law.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Something’s cooking
There’s a chicken in the oven, how did you know?
SCARY!!!
Nice to see FLAN statutes work themselves out amicably.
Apple don’t steal technology…
Who says they do?
In this IP saturated world, sometimes you create something that was previously created but unknown. When some companies like Apple are caught, they pay up and settle without drama. Samsung and Google however, don’t care that they are copying or steeling. That’s their business model.
If Apple won the recent lawsuit, why is Apple paying??
Likely to become a licensee (or exclusive licensee) of some other Elan patents. 5 million is not much money (particularly for apple) and you also have to remember that “saving face” is likely very important to Elan (and has never been a priority (or even a minor issue) for the post Jobs Apple).
P.S. My “post Jobs Apple” would be post Jobs’s return, not after his death.
So for the change found beneath the couch cushions in Apple’s executive lunchroom, Apple makes a patent headache go away. Sure is nice to be sitting on a mountain of cash.
——RM