HTC and Apple have reached a global settlement that includes the dismissal of all current lawsuits and a ten-year license agreement.
The license 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, in a joint statement.
“We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC,” said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, in the statement. “We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”
Source: Apple Inc., HTC
Reuters reports, “Shares of HTC Corp jumped by their permitted daily limit on Monday after the Taiwanese smartphone maker and Apple Inc announced a global patent settlement and 10-year licensing agreement. The shares were up 6.86 percent at T$241.50 in broader market that opened up 0.15 percent.”
Brief article in full here.
MacDailyNews Take: Witness the future of Android phone peddlers. This is the beginning of the end for Android.
This is how the thermonuclear war ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper (after choking on a stack of royalty payments).
With Microsoft and Apple now both extracting royalties, Android just got a lot less attractive to HTC.
What happens next? As we explained over a year ago on October 27, 2011:
Windows Phone will be popular. Over time, it’ll eat the lunch of the increasingly fragmented, increasingly insecure, and increasingly costly Android (losing patent infringement lawsuits and dropping features/paying royalties to multiple IP owners will do that to you).
The not-iPhone world will begin to dump Android and move to Microsoft’s mobile OS offering because it will eventually cost less, work better, and come with far fewer legal issues. In the iPhone wannabe market, it’s already happening (Nokia, for example). We expect the same to happen in the iPad wannabe market, too. Google and Microsoft will long battle each other for the non-Apple markets and that’s a much better scenario for everyone than having a single ripoff artist flood the market with fragmented, insecure, beta-esque, mediocre-at-best products. Google’s attempt to be the next Microsoft is doomed.
This, of course, will also impact Google’s search business. Apple’s Siri will increasingly deliver info to users sans Google and Microsoft will, naturally, use Bing for their search. As we’ve said many times in the past: Google will rue the day they got greedy by deciding to try to work against Apple instead of with them.
The bottom line: We’d rather see a company trying unique ideas, even if – shockingly – it’s Microsoft, than the wholesale theft of Apple innovations that we’ve been seeing for over four years now. Don’t steal IP. Even worse, don’t steal IP and “claim to be innovators.” We have no problem with any companies that attempt to compete with Apple using their own unique ideas and strategies.
Take a look at which OS is being promoted on HTC’s website today:
Related articles:
Microsoft: Google’s Android infringes on our patented IP; signs new patent deal with HTC – April 28, 2010
Microsoft general counsel: Apple’s patent infringement lawsuit against HTC ‘a positive development’ – March 15, 2010
