Samsung Wants To See The Details Of Apple's HTC Settlement

from the just-curious... dept

Mon, Nov 19th 2012 5:41am — Mike Masnick

So, last week we wrote about Apple settling its patent fight with HTC -- though the terms were secret. It certainly sounded like it wasn't that much money, as HTC seemed to brush off the financial concerns. That appears to have caught the attention of Samsung's lawyers, who have now filed a motion asking the court to make Apple reveal the terms of its HTC settlement. Perhaps more important than the amount, Samsung wants to see if the deal includes all of Apple's patents, since there are some that Apple has been insisting it would never license as part of its argument as to why there needs to be an injunction blocking the sale of Samsung devices, rather than just monetary damages. It would undermine Apple's case if it then turned around and licensed those patents to HTC. As the linked article above notes, it would be surprising if HTC agreed to a deal that didn't include those patents. So the end result of the HTC deal may be that Apple just bargained away some of its ability to get injunctions against Samsung's devices.

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Filed Under: licensing, patents
Companies: apple, htc, samsung

11 Comments

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Planespotter (profile), 19 Nov 2012 @ 5:50am

Hopefully Apple have dug themselves into a hole with all teh patent lawsuits they have brought in the last 2 years... I don't wish Apple any harm just wish they'd compete in the market place rather than in the court room. This settlement, if it sees the light of day, may be the beginning of the end... *crosses fingers*
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2012 @ 6:42am

what's good for one, cant be used detrimentally against another, can it? sorry. i keep forgetting. this is Apple we're talking about. the only company that will sue the arse off of one company for doing something it dont like, but then does the same thing the other company was doing, but to another, and think it is ok! shame it doesn't completely collapse! every time it brings out a 'new' device, people clamor for it only to find, like Microsoft stuff, it's a heap of crap that needs 6 more months minimum checking and the buyers are paying to be beta testers!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2012 @ 6:56am

More and more Apple seems to be extortionists then a company who creates products.
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Pixelation, 19 Nov 2012 @ 7:05am

That Freetard coroporation known as Samsung just wants a way to steal money from Apple. There is no way on God's green earth they would have come up with these ideas on their own. Who but Apple would round corners? Fucking brilliant! I hope they learn their lesson from this and stop stealing Idea Property. How can Apple use these ideas when they've been stolen?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2012 @ 7:06am

Apple only licenses it's products to companies that it doesn't view as a threat.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Nov 2012 @ 7:44am

Re:
Even if they dug themselves into a hole, alas, they have enough bags of money to build a ramp out of, multiple times the size they'd need to emerge from said hole.
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Shadow Dragon (profile), 19 Nov 2012 @ 8:27am

Re:
Ditto
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Matt T. (profile), 19 Nov 2012 @ 10:03am

Re: Re:
And just like that, a patent was filed on the iRamp�...
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The eejit (profile), 19 Nov 2012 @ 10:59am

Re: Re: Re:
I cite Morgan freeman as prior art.
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Wally (profile), 19 Nov 2012 @ 7:30pm

Second, given HTC's newest phone uses a 343ppi display. I'm pretty sure that is the technology licensed to HTC from Apple....Retina Display. Which was not involved with Apple vs. Samsung patent suit.

Samsung is still dogging on about the Jury Foreman in this case, which is understandable, but totally missing the mark in what it seeks to litigate against Apple for.
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Wally (profile), 20 Nov 2012 @ 6:19am

Re:
Samsung is apparently asking the court to force Apple to hand over the agreement, so it can offer a similar deal instead of having its products banned in the United States. In other words "I want what he wants...we wanty deal!!! Me want a deal!!!!," which is kind of ironic considering Samsung spread the FUD that Apple was strong arming their patents and refused to settle the case before the trial.
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