HTC and Apple recently came to a settlement to end the ongoing patent battles outside of the courtroom. When asked if Samsung would follow HTC’s lead and reach a settlement with Apple, a top Samsung executive, Shin Jong-kyun, said the company has “no such intention.”
Samsung and Apple, two of the top tech giants in the world, have been locked in ongoing design and technology patent battles around the world since April 2011. Apple has been involved in similar patent lawsuits with HTC, which announced recently that the two companies had reached a deal to end the ongoing litigation and sign a 10-year licensing agreement over patents. Terms of the settlement were not revealed, but experts speculate that HTC will pay between $6-$8 per phone, which would amount to about $180 million to $280 million a year.
Shin Jong-kyun, who heads Samsung’s mobile and IT division, told reporters, “It may be true that HTC may have agreed to pay 300 billion won (US$276 million) to Apple, but we don’t intend to (negotiate) at all.”
Samsung was ordered by a U.S. jury in August to pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for being found guilty of copying design features of the iPhone and iPad in its own Samsung Galaxy smartphones. The company has since appealed the ruling, while two courts, in Japan and the Netherlands, have dismissed Apple’s claims of patent infringement.
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