A heavily redacted version of Apple's
patent licensing agreement with HTC, made public on Wednesday as part of the
Apple v. Samsung jury trial, reveals a bit more information about the
properties covered as part of the ten-year deal.
Submitted to public record on Wednesday by
Samsung, the 143-page document outlines the specifics of the Apple and HTC
licensing agreement reached in November, which put a stop to all current and
pending litigation. The filing comes as part of the Apple v. Samsung post-trial
proceedings, with Samsung ikely using the deal to undermine Apple's bid for a
number of product injunctions.
The portions of the document left
unredacted show that both Apple and HTC are getting nonexclusive rights to
certain number of the other's patents, with Apple stating it will not sue over
a number of HTC products. Those products remain secret, however, as all
associated references to the devices were redacted.
Exclusions to the deal include "rights
to any Design Patents of APPLE" as well as so-called "cloned"
products made by HTC, which leaves a back door out of the agreement should the
Taiwanese firm make a handset that too closely resembles an Apple device. Also
not part of the settlement are nine patents HTC asserted against Apple in
previous litigation. As noted by AllThingsD's Ina Fried, the patents
specifically excluded from the deal are those on loan from Google.
Earlier in the week, Apple v. Samsung Judge
Lucy Koh ruled against an Apple motion to keep the patents involved in its HTC
settlement out of public view, but agreed that the financial particulars of the
agreement should stay sealed as disclosing such information could cause harm to
both parties.
Samsung and Apple are both scheduled to
meet at a post-trial hearing on Thursday, at which both parties will argue
their respective motions including Apple's bid for a sales ban against eight
Samsung devices and the Korean company's push to have the entire case thrown
out over jury misconduct.
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