Apple might have had its differences with Samsung, but earlier this year they went face to face with HTC as well. Apple naturally claimed HTC infringed on some patents in their latest Evo and One line up of smartphones. Apple even managed to take them off of American shelves for quite some time. HTC incurred heavy losses because of this.
Today in a surprising development, HTC announced that they have settled all pending legal disputes with Apple. Unlike previous cases, this agreement is a global settlement. It dismisses all cases HTC and Apple had against each other under a 10 year license agreement which covers current and future patents held by each company. The terms of agreement are kept in secrecy, but according to HTC it won’t cost them too much money. This settlement now allows HTC to use features such as slide to unlock or universal search in their phones.
Peter Chou says that “HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation.” Apple CEO Tim Cook says ”we are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC,” and that “we will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”
Now if Apple can be this nice to Samsung, the tech world would be a much better place.