Patents

Samsung will be able to look at the settlement between Apple and HTC. Samsung will reportedly use the content of the settlement to determine if they need to halt sales of any of their products after their billion-dollar loss to Apple in a US court in August. Apple had previously sought to keep the specific dollar amount of its settlement with HTC private while providing the rest of the settlement terms for Samsung to view, though Samsung didn’t find this sufficient.

Apple has reportedly received a transfer of 1,024 patents or patent applications from Rockstar Consortium, formerly Rockstar Bidco, a group of technology companies that bid on thousands of patents that had previously held by Nortel. Apple had been part of Rockstar Bidco, which bid against Google for the patents, and had access to the patents through that consortium. The transfer of patents to Apple’s ownership, however, could better position them in ongoing litigation. Owen Thomas of Business Insider reports:

In the wake of HTC settling their patent litigation with Apple, likely by agreeing to pay a per-handset licensing fee to Apple, Samsung has come out and said they won't be doing likewise any time soon. That, according to J.K. Shin of Samsung Mobile.

Apple has been fined $368 million after their video calling feature, FaceTime, was found to infringe on patents owned by a company called VirnetX, a company that provides solutions for secure internet communications. A US court ruled that Apple’s FaceTime product infringes on four patents by VirnetX. One of the patents at issue involved the ability to establish a secure communication link. Apple apparently has no option for appeal in this matter. VirnetX has also brought suit against a number of other larger companies over its patent portfolio.