“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.]