“Following the news earlier this week that Rockstar had reached a $188 million settlement with Cisco, it has now emerged that the NPE has also settled with Google,” Richard Lloyd reports for IAM blog. “According to a court filing in the Eastern District of Texas, the two sides have agreed to a binding term sheet that ‘settles, in principle, all matters in controversy between the two parties.’ This settlement states that agreement was reached on 12th November, the same day as the agreements the NPE reached with Cisco.”
“The news comes amid growing uncertainty over Rockstar’s future. The IAM blog understands that at least some of the five companies that own the NPE are now keen to exit their investment,” Lloyd reports. “They include Apple, which in 2011 contributed $2.6 billion to the total of $4.5 billion the original Rockstar Bidco paid for the Nortel patents the NPE now manages. It is presumed to own the single largest shareholding as a result.”
“The Google and Cisco settlements come amid growing signs that the protracted smartphone wars are drawing to an end. Earlier this year Apple and Google announced that they had agreed to settle all patent litigation between them,” Lloyd reports. “Apple also reached a similar deal with Samsung, covering all cases outside the US.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
An iPhone with a larger screen option will hurt Samsung immeasurably more than myriad, unending traipses through the legal morass. – MacDailyNews, May 2, 2014
Related article:
Cisco preparing to pay $188M to Apple-led Rockstar Consortium – November 20, 2014
Good news. The costs of pursuing this war are just making thousands of lawyers rich. Better to beat them the old fashioned way: By making ‘Insanely Great Products’.
Yeah, by making ‘Insanely Great Products’ that companies like Nokia and Samsung steal, and thanks to Judge Koh, get away with.
Imagine if Pepsi were to make a bottle for their drinks that looked exactly like Coke’s pinched waist bottle. Does anybody think they’d get away with that???!!! Hell, no, they’d be sued and told to cease and desist by the DOJ.
But Samsung has been ‘convicted’ for willfully stealing and using Apple’s IP, and they’ve not paid 1¢ in fines, nor have they been ordered to stop.
+1!!!
Exactly the failure to push home or to be precise being thwarted by the idiot Kol has directly led to Nokia doing a total rip off of the iPad. Apple has to fight against these scams but rightly has to know when to fight and when to compromise. The option to sue again has to be held over others heads though or there is little point investing endlessly in innovation.
Apple’s $2.6B investment in Rockstar was an insurance policy…part of a multi-pronged defense/offense against Samsung, Google/Motorola/Android, and other companies enlisted by Samsung and Google to legally harass Apple. It also reduced the infighting among the Rockstar investors.
Despite a lot of criticism about Apple’s legal strategy and prowess, it appears to have paid off. Apple was able to achieve a standoff or better in its legal battles while continuing to execute its corporate strategy for the OS X and iOS ecosystems and products. In the end, Apple’s defensive battles on the legal front enabled its technology team to forge ahead to victory in combination with strategic acquisitions and alliances orchestrated by Apple management. In some ways, the legal battles were just another form of misdirection by Apple.
It is very important to establish property rights through the legal system so they can be asserted in the long run. The real problem is that the legal system is so slow. In the short run, you do whatever you can to survive and, hopefully, prevail over those who would steal your intellectual property.
Google, Samsung, and all the other copycats are getting off way too easy. Sure, the only ones who benefit monetarily from continued litigation might be the lawyers, but it also hurts the companies who hired them. However, $1M in attorney fees means far less to Apple who has billions than all the others.
1. Apple has to defend its IP. Saying that there is little chance of scoring big points or bucks that way. Therefore they have to do what is necessary but minimize the effort if they can.
2. Innovation is what Apple has successfully shown to be the best way to beat the competition.
3. Own the high-end market and slowly take over the mid range, then low range market. Apple did that superbly in the music player market, then replicated it in the mobile phone and tablet market. What they have done to the PC market is truly remarkable.
4. Unit market share does not matter. Profit market share does. Keep making high quality products that differentiate you from the competition.
Simply Apple has found its groove, in the current market. They can now play their toon, just like they did with the iPod. It would seem they are now invincible with the smartphone everyone else now gets all the crumbs. This is precisely why their stock is on an uptick.
But competition is a good thing and I hope others will contue to play the game, without copying. That way we will get to see new ideas and benefit from them.
Apples next front is payments and wearables. Very exciting, in deed.