Samsung moves to inspect the Apple-HTC patent agreement
Friday, November 16, 2012 @ 8:50pm
Samsung has fired the most recent shot in the continuing legal maneuvers wrapping up the first smartphone patent dispute between it and Apple. Earlier this afternoon, Samsung filed a petition with the court to require Apple to disclose terms of its patent license agreement recently signed with HTC, which ended the legal skirmish between the Cupertino giant and the struggling handset maker.
Samsung wants to see if patents that Apple licensing director Boris Teskler referred to as "untouchables" were licensed to HTC, presumably hoping for some relief from the landmark suit's judgement. During the trial's testimony, Teskler declared that the collection that Samsung was found to have improperly used was shared with "a handful of companies," most of whom have existing cross-patent license agreements with Apple. Should HTC be found to be a licensee, the patents will still only be licensed to a handful of companies, and there would still be no mandate on Apple to license the patents to Samsung.
"As you know, the issue of Apple's willingness to license its patents was briefed in Samsung's opposition to Apple's motion for permanent injunction," wrote Samsung attorney Robert Becher. "This license has direct bearing on the question of irreparable harm and whether monetary remedies are adequate." Samsung has requested an answer from the court no later than November 27.
Apple and Samsung are scheduled for Judge Lucy Koh's courtroom on December 6 to deal with the myriad of post-trial motions that have been filed since the trial. Apple is attempting to ban Samsung devices as a result of the infringement, the ethics of jury foreman Velvin Hogan will be examined, and Samsung is attempting multiple avenues to try and get the trial verdict set aside by the judge.
No comments posted on this story yet. Please post yours.
Your Comments
In order to post comments, you must be a registered member of the
MacNN Forums and logged in. Please login with your MacNN Forums username and password.
Not a member of the MacNN forums?
Register now for free.
