HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone maker butting heads with Apple in a patent battle, says it’s willing to negotiate with the iPhone maker after both sides scored victories at the U.S. International Trade Commission, reports “Bloomberg” (http://macte.ch/ZoSmP).
“We have to sit down and figure it out,” Winston Yung, chief financial officer of the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company, told “Bloomberg” by phone. “We’re open to having discussions.”
On July 6 HTC announced an US$300 million deal to buy S3 Graphics, less than a week after that company won an ITC ruling against Apple over two patents. In a July 15 initial determination, the same commission ruled in Apple’s favor on two other patents.
Regarding the latter, the US trade commission said that HTC was guilty of violating two Apple patents when it produced mobile phones based on the Android operating system. Apple had filed a complaint against HTC for infringing ten of their patents.
However, the findings are preliminary and are subject to review by the full six-member committee in Washington. A final decision is due on Dec. 6.
“We are open to all sorts of solutions, as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable,” Yung told “Bloomberg.” “On and off we’ve had discussions with Apple, even before the initial determination came out.”
— Dennis Sellers
