Apple vs HTC Patent War Finally Reach Settlement with 10-year Licensing Deal

HTC and Apple has finally broken the deadlock which would resolve the long standing patent disputes among the two major companies that was going on since March 2010. The companies have also signed a 10-year license agreement applicable to the existing and future patents.

HTC currently competes with Apple and Samsung in the smartphone and tablet segment. However, the company still lags in matching up with both the companies with respect to sales. Apple is busy dealing with a series of patent issues with major smartphone manufacturers including the main rival Samsung.

It may be recalled that Apple won the patent infringement case against Samsung with court ordering Samsung to pay a hefty $1 billion as violation charges. They also have a legal battle on with Motorola on a similar patent infringement issue.

HTC on the other hand has been facing few challenges off late. Their sale has been on decline since the third quarter of 2011. The company could not find the expected success in Android platform based gadgets market. The company is now trying new strategies for boosting the sales of its products like turning their focus to Windows Phone 8 platform.

Peter Chou, the head of HTC was stated as saying, “HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation.” He also stated the company is expecting lower sales than expected by the end of this year especially owing to the stiff competition it is facing from its rivals.

Reports claim HTC and Apple to have been engaged in more than 20 patent cases across the world. It is only recently that Apple won a battle against HTC in which the US International Trade Commission issued a ‘Limited Exclusion Order’ which restricted HTC from bringing offending smartphones to US from April onwards. In May however, US mobile carrier Sprint was also prevented from releasing an HTC smartphone running on Google’s android operating system after the devices were blocked by US customs following an Apple complaint.