A U.S. judge has ordered Apple Inc to disclose to rival Samsung
Electronics details of a legal settlement the iPhone
maker reached with Taiwan's HTC Corp, including terms of
a 10-year patents licensing agreement.
The Korean electronics giant
had earlier filed a motion to compel its U.S. rival -- with whom it is
waging a bitter legal battle over mobile patents across several
countries -- t o reveal details of the settlement that was reached on
November 10 with HTC but which have been kept under wraps.
In
August, the iPhone maker won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung
after a U.S. jury found that certain Samsung gadgets violated Apple's
software and design patents.
Now, legal experts say the question
of which patents are covered by the Apple-HTC settlement, and licensing
details, could be instrumental in Samsung's efforts to thwart Apple's
subsequent quest for a permanent sales ban on its products.
The
Asian company has argued it is "almost certain" that the HTC deal covers
some of the same patents involved in its own litigation with Apple.
The
court on Wednesday ordered Apple to produce a full copy of the
settlement agreement "without delay", subject to an Attorneys-Eyes-Only
designation.
Representatives for the U.S. company could not immediately be reached for comment.
The
settlement of Apple and HTC ended their worldwide litigation and
brought to a close one of the first major flare-ups in the global
smartphone patent wars.
© Thomson Reuters 2012