“HTC this week announced the One A9, and the design turned out to be a blatant copy of the iPhone 6/6S,” Brad Ward reports for Talk Android. “HTC claims that it was actually Apple who copied the Taiwanese manufacturer, but Cupertino won’t be serving papers to HTC anytime soon either way.”
“Apple was quick to start the litigation process with Samsung over every little minuscule patent, but not HTC. And that’s because in 2012, HTC and Apple reached a deal where the Taiwanese company would pay Apple $6-$8 per Android device the manufacturer ships in return for the patent battles to stop,” Ward reports. “The terms of the deal remain confidential to this day. The agreement was for 10 years, and we’re only three years into it so far.”
Ward reports, “In other words, we won’t be seeing any litigation over the One A9, unless HTC breaks some confidential term of the deal.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The terms of the HTC deal do not grant HTC the right to steal Ives & Co.’s work and infringe Apple iPhone’s trade dress.
We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours. — Steve Jobs, March 2, 2010
Oh, BTW:
The [iPhone] design is quite weak; it’s very, very basic… [HTC has] a huge advantage. – HTC CEO Peter Chou, September, 2007
SEE ALSO:
Beleaguered HTC brand is worthless – August 10, 2015
Beleaguered HTC shares plummet after record quarterly loss – August 7, 2015
Apple-HTC terms are consistent with what Steve Jobs told Eric Schmidt and stated in public – December 6, 2012
HTC claims to be ‘very, very happy’ with Apple settlement, slams media estimates – November 20, 2012
HTC initiated settlement talks with Apple after being hit with several legal setbacks, says source – November 12, 2012
Analyst: HTC settlement worth up to $8 per phone for Apple; serve as model for future deals with Apple patent infringers – November 12, 2012
Apple and HTC settle global patent battle – November 11, 2012
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Duck these people and their pretend iPhones.
The terms of the HTC deal do not grant HTC the right to steal Ives & Co.’s work and infringe Apple iPhone’s trade dress.
You don’t know that. The deal is confidential.
-jcr
In other words, we’ll see an iPhone clone by HTC for the next 7 years. Doesn’t sound like a smart move by Apple.
You actually believe HTC will survive 2016, much less make it to 2022? Ain’t gonna happen.
$6-$8 per device? Wow. With ‘hundreds’ of phones expected to sell, this could be a huge windfall for Apple.
Frankly, HTC is headed towards bankruptcy anyway, and even blatantly ripping off Apple’s designs won’t change that. The most that a lawsuit would do is accelerate the process a bit.
Or worse, give HTC free publicity as an underdog.
This is the same as those Coach, Channel or Louis Vouiton fake bags sold on Canal Street (in Chinatown) in New York in the street. Or those fake Parker pens. People who buy them, as well as people who see them, know well that they are pretending to be the real thing. It is a very poor’s man substitute for an aspirational item.
These will be of very little to no consequence for Apple.
Chanel and Louis Vuitton, I suppose you meant. 😃
Right; apparently, neither I, nor my phone, knows how to spell them… And I just didn’t have enough time to google it first.
Nevertheless, I have your back in this new adventure of high-stakes fashion merchandising that Apple has got into, to the consternation of many of the old guard with solder-stained fingers. Your point about counterfeiting and its consequences however shines through despite spelling, that’s the important thing.
I used to think copy-cats were a threat to Apple’s brand, but they have proven to be nothing but pathetic. Copy away hosers!
Don’t forget that Obama called ISIS a “jayvee team” early on.
And that’s relevant how?
A lawsuit by Apple could give HTC (one of the forgotten also rans in the touchscreen phone business) much needed publicity. Not sure Apple want’s to do that.
If a customer can’t figure out the difference between an iPhone and HTC, he is not a customer worth having.
Similarly, if that customer doesn’t care, he’s also not likely to ever be an Apple customer. I doubt anyone will purchase one of these by mistake.
Before anyone gets carried away the HTC One (M7) was released in Feb 2013 – at the time iPhone 5 was on sale.
Apple didn’t move back to metal rear casing until the iPhone 6 in Sep 14.
The A9 is as much a development of the earlier HTC One as it is anything else – iPhone 6 included.
Such blatant copying just enforces the opinion that Apple’s designs are superior… So why not just buy an Apple device? It’s not like the price difference is enough to justify the cheaper one.