Samsung Wins Access to Details of Apple-HTC Patent Deal

AFRIK UPDATE

TECH

By David Gilbert

Only Samsung Lawyers will get to see the details of royalty payments involved in Apple and HTC's patent licencing deal - A US Court Rule

 

The ruling however stipulates that only counsel for the South Korean company will get access to the details and they will not be made public or shown to internal staff at Samsung

Apple and HTC had previously made it clear they would be willing to share the details of its patent licencing agreement with Samsung but with 33 specific words redacted. These words related to the amount of royalties involved.

While it is unknown for certain who is paying who as a result of this deal, it is almost certain that HTC is paying Apple, considering it is the American company which has won several court rulings in relation to patents it holds.

Apple claimed Samsung had not shown good cause for accessing the royalty details, but Judge Paul Grewal disagreed:

"Although the court is more than s little sceptical of Samsung's arguments regarding the financial terms, Rule 26 provides a broad standard of relevance. Samsung's motion to compel production of an unredacted version of the settlement agreement is granted. Apple shall produce the unredacted document without delay subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation under the protective order already in place in this case."

Samsung is seeking access to the details of the agreement as part of its on-going billion dollar patent battle with Apple.