HTC, Apple ordered to show which patents were included in their settlement agreement
U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh on Monday ruled that the patents included in the HTC and Apple settlement agreement must be made public, CNET reported. Other details such as pricing and royalty rates, however, will remain private. Koh’s decision comes two weeks after U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal ordered Apple (AAPL) to grant Samsung’s (005930) lawyers access to an unredacted version of the settlement agreement. Koh noted that there were “compelling reasons to seal pricing and royalty terms, as they may place the parties to the agreement at a disadvantage in future negotiations, but there is nothing in the remainder of the agreement that presents a sufficient risk of competitive harm to justify keeping it from the public.” She added that “the list of patents covered by the agreement does not meet the ‘compelling reasons’ standard.” The Cupertino-based company had previously stated that it was not interested in licensing its “unique” user experience patents, claiming that doing so would prevent it from permanently banning devices that infringe its technology. With the agreement being made public, however, it will be interesting to see what patents Apple has licensed to HTC (2498).
