Taiwan's leading smartphone maker HTC said Sunday
it has reached a global settlement with technology giant Apple,
bringing an end to all outstanding litigation between the two companies.
The deal includes a 10-year licensing agreement over patents, HTC said in a statement, without providing further details.
"HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute
with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation," HTC
CEO Peter Chou said in the statement.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC."
"We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation."
HTC and Apple were locked in more than 20
cases in the world including some pending the ruling of the
International Trade Commission of the United States, according to an HTC
official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Technology giants have taken to routinely
pounding one another with patent lawsuits. Apple has accused HTC and
other smartphone makers using Google's Android mobile operating system
of infringing on Apple-held patents.
A boy looks at a MacBook Air announcing the
passing of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. HTC claimed in a suit that
MacBook Air had infringed on two patents it acquired from
Hewlett-Packard last year related to computer networks, Taipei-based
Apple Daily reported.
"This is definitely a positive element to HTC,
especially when it is being knocked by poor sales," Mars Hsu of Grand
Cathay Securities told AFP.
"Unlike the lawsuits between Apple and
Samsung focusing on the alleged infringement of iPhone outlook, the
suits with HTC are more related to alleged technology infringements," he
said.
Apple won an order last December from the US
International Trade Commission, which issued a "limited exclusion order"
directing that HTC stop bringing offending smartphones into the United
States effective on April 19.
In May, US mobile carrier Sprint said it had
to delay the introduction of an Android smartphone from HTC after the
devices were blocked by US customs in the first enforcement of a win in a
trade complaint by Apple.
HTC's net profit in the three months to
September tumbled 79.1 percent from a year ago to Tw$3.9 billion ($133.1
million), down sharply from Tw$18.64 billion.
Revenues totalled Tw$70.2 billion, meeting
the lower side of the Tw$70 billion-Tw$80 billion range it had
previously forecast. The revenues marked a sharp decline of 48 percent
from a year ago when they were Tw$135.82 billion.
In the latest of the series of lawsuits
between the two companies, HTC in July said it was suing Apple in a
district court in Florida but declined to elaborate as the case had
entered formal litigation proceedings.
According to the Taipei-based Apple Daily
newspaper, HTC claimed in the suit that Apple's MacBook Air, MacBook Pro
and iPhone have infringed on two patents it acquired from
Hewlett-Packard last year related to computer networks.
But HTC hailed a victory in July as a British
court ruled that it did not infringe on Apple's photo management patent
while deeming three other Apple patents -- for slide-to-unlock,
multi-touch and multilingual keyboard capability -- invalid.
HTC sells its own smartphones and also makes handsets for a number of leading US companies, including Google's Nexus One.
The company has recently unveiled a new
series of smartphones to compete with US technology giant Apple and
South Korea's Samsung, which separately launched the iPhone 5 last month
and the Galaxy Note II in late September.
© 2012 AFP
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© 2012 AFP
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