HTC’s Peter Chou is happy with Apple patent agreement, but says payout estimates are outrageous

Last week it was announced that HTC and Apple entered into a 10-year global patent agreement. Various media sites (including yours truly) reported that as part of that agreement, HTC would pay Apple $6 to $8 per Android phone, but chief executive Peter Chou is said those estimates are outrageous.

“I think that these estimates are baseless and very, very wrong. It is a outrageous number, but I’m not going to comment anything on a specific number. I believe we have a very, very happy settlement and a good ending,” said Chou at a KDDI Corp product launch in Tokyo.

Where these estimates came from, I don’t know because the details of the agreement were never released. Furthermore, HTC won’t change it fourth-quarter guidance number based on the agreement. This is good news because HTC is one of the better Android manufacturers, and I would hate to see them get stuck paying Apple ridiculously high rates per device.

source: reuters

Samsung suing LG, claims infringement on OLED technologies

The Samsung-LG rivalry is back at it again. Samsung is retaliating for LG’s September lawsuit with a suit of their own. This time, Samsung is seeking to have seven patents granted to LG rendered invalid based upon previous infringement with some of their own. Samsung has long been producing Organic Light-Emitting Diode (OLED) displays, and many of their current gen Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode displays (AMOLED) are being used is products around the world. This type of screen is immensely popular because of its ability to function without a backlight that many other kinds of displays require.

While both LG and Samsung produce similar displays. The function of them is quite different; LG uses their screens mainly for TV’s while Samsung focuses mainly upon mobile devices. Recently, with LG’s Optimus G line of phones and Samsung’s latest line of TV’s both companies have been stepping into each other’s territories. This dispute could potentially setting the boundary between these two markets for display technology and grant Samsung a strong monopoly in the mobile display market.

Source: Yonhap News

Apple and Samsung both allowed to add products to patent lawsuit

Our two favorite legal teams from Samsung and Apple have both been given the green light on adding more products to their newest patent lawsuit. This is the lawsuit that includes the iPhone 5′s LTE and Apple’s addition of the Galaxy Note 10.1, US Galaxy S III, and Jelly Bean, in case you lost track. According to this ruling Samsung and Apple will both be allowed to add those new devices to the patent suit. To clarify, when Apple added Jelly Bean to the lawsuit, that’s limited exclusively to the software on Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus. Although since that is still technically Google software and not Samsung software, I’m just as confused as you are.

This lawsuit is set to take place in 2014 and targets the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, as well as 19 Samsung products. Realistically, neither of these companies will be promoting these same products come 2014, assuming no more products are added over time, but it’s always disappointing to see this constant litigation.

source: Bloomberg

HTC and Apple sign 10-year licensing deal to end patent disputes

I think we can all agree the endless patent lawsuits aren’t good for consumers. Well, hopefully Apple and HTC have seen this light, as they confirmed they’ve settled their patent disputes and have entered a 10-year licensing deal to avoid more lawsuits. The CEOs of both companies made statements that they are pleased to have reached an agreement and are ready to continue innovation, not litigation.

Apple has certainly abused the patent system lately, but this is a step in the right direction. No amount of patents and lawsuits are going to force consumers to buy your products, and I’m sure Apple knows that. Now we should all just hope for this kind of agreement to happen with some other Android OEMs as well. Hit the press release after the break for more about the licensing deal.

Apple told to rewrite its “Samsung did not copy” statement and keep it posted until mid-December

Remember when a UK court ordered Apple to post a notice on their UK website saying Samsung did not copy Apple’s designs? I’m sure it must have extremely tough for Apple to do that, but at least they complied, right? Well, maybe not. A UK court of appeals has criticized Apple for its choice of words, and the fact that the statement is hidden in a footer link on the website. That same court of appeals found that Apple is non-compliant with the court order.

That’s not it, there’s even better news out of this. Apple has been told to rewrite the statement, and post it in at least an 11-point font within 48 hours. Apple is contesting that time frame, saying it would need at least two weeks to rewrite the statement, which reportedly shocked some of the court officials. Regardless, Apple’s legal team still must work within that 48 hour time frame, and the new statement must remain up until December 14th. I wonder what UK Christmas shoppers are going to think?

Source: The Guardian