Sensation maker have extended an olive branch to iPhone kings. But will Apple grab it?”We’re open to having discussions,” Winston Yung, HTC’s chief financial officer told Bloomberg today, referring to the ongoing patents battle going on between the two smartphone rivals, which has seen Apple win part of its claim against the Desire S creator.
“We are open to all sorts of solutions,” he added, although cautioned only “as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable.”
Less than two weeks ago, Apple won a ruling from the International Trade Commission, who judged HTC violated two out of ten patents it owns.
And the Taiwanese giant had been holding secret talks with Cupertino based Apple, even before the ITC ruling, but to no avail, Yung revealed today.
“On and off we’ve had discussions with Apple, even before the initial determination came out.” “We have to sit down and figure it out,” once and for all, he mused.
However, there have been no formal talks since the ITC ruling was made. And Apple recently filed a second complaint against the rising star of the industry to the ITC over technology involved in scrolling and multitouch gesturing used to control smartphones.
But what is now even more interesting about this patents row is HTC just this month on (July 06) snapped up software company and patent holder, S3, and although a loss maker, could hold the key to the resolution of this case. Why?
Because Apple also this month lost a separate patent case with S3 on July 1, which saw the same ITC body that ruled in its favour against HTC just two weeks later, rule that it had infringed on two patents S3 owns the right to.
The (now) HTC owned company first took the claim last year, claiming Apple was using patented technology on a flurry of its well known products including Mac PC’s, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
The patents Apple were found guilty of violating was one claim from US Patent No. 6,683,978 and two from United States Patent No. 6,658,146, which relate to compression technology. And S3 also holds many patents which the likes of Apple would kill to get their techie hands on.
“Buying a patent portfolio will be very useful to us,” Yung previously admitted. So Apple 1, HTC 1.
The battle is also part of a broader rivalry between Android and iOS Apple, and the fight for market dominance in a tightening market. Android appear to be winning that race so far, though.
Whether Apple will look for an agreement is anyone’s guess, and have given nothing away so far.
