At the moment, Apple is "stuck" in legal disputes with many manufacturers of Android terminals, but everything could end extremely quickly if the licensing offers that I will talk about below will be accepted by Apple's competitors. Apple for now sent licensing offers to Motorola and Samsung, two of the companies against which he has the most lawsuits. In these licensing offers, Apple asks for between $5 and $15 from the selling price of Android terminals, the prices being made for certain sets of patents.
The consumer-electronics company has put forth proposals to Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE, SSNHY) to settle some pending litigation in exchange for royalty payments to license its patents, among other terms, [people familiar with the matter] said. This is not a new tactic; Apple had some discussions with companies such as Samsung before initiating litigation, according to statements made to a court in at least one suit.
The problem with these offers is that they represent between 1-2.5% of the value of Android terminals, so we are talking about a large tax imposed by Apple on its competitors. Motorola was criticized when he asked for 2.25% for the licensing of some FRAND patents, but Apple is doing the same thing now, but there is a big difference in terms of the nature of the patents. Apple demands 2.5% for patents that it is not obliged to license in fair and reasonable terms, but even so it is hard to believe that Samsung or Motorola will agree to pay the price demanded by the company from Cupertino.
Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., has asked for between $5 and $15 per handset for some of its patents in one negotiation, or roughly 1% to 2.5% of net sales per device, another person familiar with the matter said. Motorola, for its part, has been criticized for asking for 2.5% of net sales per device for its wireless patents from Apple.
The most interesting part is that these offers would be made against the "wishes" of Steve Jobs who was set to destroy Android.
Any offer to license patents would seem to oppose statements from co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in October.
