Last Sunday we found out that Apple and HTC have concluded a global agreement for mutual licensing of some technologies, and this announcement surprised a lot of people. Among the companies surprised by the announcement is Samsung which he asked to an American court to reveal the details of the agreement between the two companies. The lawyer of the Samsung company says that Apple would have licensed to HTC a series of patents that it did not want to license to the Koreans, among them there are several patents that cover important technologies of iOS, an Apple expert stating that those patents are "untouchable ” and cannot be licensed to any company.
"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 Quinn Emanuel's Robert Becher, who is representing Samsung in the case. "This license has direct bearing on the question of irreparable harm and whether monetary remedies are adequate." Becher added that the license could also shed light on whether Apple included some of its "unique" user experience patents, which it doesn't share with other companies. In a testimony about that collection, Apple patent licensing director Boris Teksler referred to that collection as "untouchables," that it only shared with a very small handful of other companies.
The interest of those from Samsung is as normal as possible, but if Apple has not licensed FRAND patents, then no one can force it to license its technologies to Samsung. Apple has the right not to license in any way or not to license at a low price certain of its technologies, and those from Samsung are trying to convince a court to force Apple to do this. Subsidiarily, there is probably also an interest in finding out what sums are involved in the agreement with HTC, but the court will probably not compel Apple to disclose these details.
