Apple told to reveal HTC deal details to Samsung

A U.S. Judge has ordered Apple to pass over details of a legal settlement with HTC to rival Samsung. This will include the terms of a 10 year patents licensing agreement.

Samsung had filed a motion to force Apple to reveal details of their HTC settlement which was reached on November 10th. The agreement was held private by Apple until the ruling.

Apple have already won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung when an American Jury found that some Samsung products violated Apple's software and design patents. Legal sources say that the question of which patents are covered by the Apple-HTC settlement could be key in Samsung's future efforts to stop Apple's achieving a permanent sales ban on their products.

Samsung claim that the HTC deal will cover some of the same patents which are involved in their own litigation with Apple.

The court have told Apple to produce a full copy of the settlement agreement ‘without delay'. Samsung have also asked the California court to add the iPod Touch 5, iPad 4 and iPad Mini to the list of devices that they claim are infringing on their patents.

Kitguru says: It will be interesting how the findings will affect the Samsung V Apple case.

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