Photo: USA Today
According to a court filing discovered by Reuters, Apple and Google’s Motorola Mobility unit have agreed to settle their ongoing smartphone patent litigation battle against each other. In a statement, the two companies said that this agreement does not include the ability cross license each other’s patents, but rather the promise to “work together in some areas of patent reform.”
The two tech giants have been battling it out over various patents for several years now, both directly and indirectly. It’s important to note, however, that this agreement is solely between Apple, Google, and its Motorola Mobility unit. This does not apply to any lawsuits between Android device manufacturers, such as Samsung and HTC, and Apple. Although theoretically, it would apply to patents owned by Google that device manufacturers are licensing.
A verdict was reached in the latest Apple v Samsung battle just a few weeks ago, with Apple being ruled as the victor, albeit small. The court ruled that Samsung owed Apple $119 million, which is far less than the $2 billion it was seeking.
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IANAL (I am not a lawyer), but it is my understanding that Apple / Samsung did not “settle” the recent lawsuit in San José; rather, the jury reached a verdict. If I understand things correctly, Apple and Samsung can still appeal, negotiate, etc… Thanks otherwise for the article.
So you didn’t read. It’s not a settlement between Apple and Samsung, it’s a settlement between Apple and Google for the Motorola patents. The article flat out also talks about the verdict reached in the Samsung trial and specifies that this doesn’t relate to any litigation between Apple and Samsung. Please stop being silly.
I know it comes from the source, but the title is sort of misleading. I don’t think that Apple and Google have agreed to an overarching settlement about Android and Android device makers. This is specifically about Apple vs Motorola Mobility, which was purchased by Google after the lawsuits started and is in the process of being sold to Lenovo.
I know you mentioned those things in the article, but I’m seeing this spreading all over the Internet with similar headlines and it’s being misinterpreted.
Regarding the sale to Lenovo, Google will be holding onto the majority of Motorola Mobility’s patents. So even after Motorola Mobility is sold to Lenovo, Google will still have these patents.
I can tell you one thing this is not the patent war between them now when both of them are entering the wearable tech industr