Va I was saying yesterday that the smartphone manufacturer called HTC has taken the decision to hold discussions with Apple in order to resolve the conflict between the 2 companies regarding the infringement of some patents in HTC terminals. We told you that the Asian manufacturer is willing to sit down at the negotiating table with Apple and now we find out why there is so much goodwill from Asians. A US International Trade Commission judge decided that Mac OS X infringes 2 patents owned by the S3 company acquired by HTC a few weeks ago. The problem is now symmetrical: Apple infringed 2 patents of a company owned by HTC and the Asian company infringed 2 patents owned by Apple.
Apple Inc's Mac OS X computer system violates patents held by S3 Graphics Co., while the platform for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad tablet does not, a US agency said in a July 1 ruling made public today.
Mac computers have an operating system that infringes two S3 patents related to graphics chips, US International Trade Commission Judge James Gildea said. Notice of the ruling was disclosed July 1 without explaining which products were in violation. Additional information was released today.
Although Applee infringed 2 patents, still only Macs with ATI graphics cards are affected by this decision because Macs with Nvidia graphics cards have a special license thanks to the chip used. The decision given by the American judge is not final, but if it remains final then HTC has an ace up its sleeve in the dispute with Apple. Probably everything will be resolved through a mutual licensing agreement between the 2 companies, or maybe Apple will ask HTC to pay a certain amount of money quarterly for the use of the patents, but everything depends on the final decision of the judges.
