Apple and HTC have put an end to their patent disputes, with a 10-year licensing agreement that allows the two to share patents. Samsung, however, is planning to use this licensing deal to prevent an injunction from banning the sales of its products, according to The Verge.
A court document reveals that the Korean tech giant want to get a copy of the agreement. If the S3-maker sees that one of the patents such as pinch-to-zoom or bounce-back was covered in the agreement (the same patents it was found guilty of infringing and ordered to pay $1 billion in damages to Apple), it will argue that the Cupertino firm cannot enforce a sales ban on its products.
According to the court filing, Apple will be foregoing “exclusivity in exchange for money”. Therefore, in Samsung’s mind, the Cupertino firm cannot have its products banned, since it has already been awarded over $1 billion in damages by a jury The iPhone-maker is also seeking another $700 million from the Korean firm.
During the biggest tech trial in history, Apple said that it licensed its computing and standards-essential patents. However, it did stress out that it “strongly” desired not licensing patents that refer to user experience. These include slide-to-unlock and other features. Boris Teksler, director of patent licensing and strategy of Apple, says that licensing these patents would allow other manufacturers to make clones of Apple’s devices.
Apple is allowing Samsung to see its licensing agreement with HTC, but only after giving the Taiwanese firm 10 days’ notice. Samsung and Apple are scheduled to talk about the potential injunction on the 6th of December. This would give the Korean firm enough time to see the deal before their scheduled trial.
The licensing deal between Apple and HTC could potentially prevent the sales ban of Samsung products.
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