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HTC Looking to Strike Deal, Google and Apple Likely to Drive Up Price of Patent Acquisitions

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Apr 12, 2001
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Bloomberg reports that HTC has expressed willingness to strike a deal with Apple in the patent dispute between the two companies that has seen Apple score an initial victory in front of the U.S. International Trade Commission while HTC has increased its firepower by acquiring a company that had already won a decision against Apple.
"We have to sit down and figure it out," Winston Yung, chief financial officer of the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company, said by phone today. "We're open to having discussions."

HTC on July 6 announced a $300 million deal to buy S3 Graphics Co., 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.

"We are open to all sorts of solutions, as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable," Yung said. "On and off we've had discussions with Apple, even before the initial determination came out."
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Meanwhile, Bloomberg notes in a separate report that the battle between Apple and Google in the patent market is continuing to heat up following Apple's $2.6 billion contribution to a consortium that outbid Google to obtain Nortel's patent portfolio for a total of $4.5 billion. The new report indicates that with Google and Apple both considering bidding for the patent assets of mobile technology firm InterDigital, the eventual sale price for that company may come at a 50% premium over its already-high levels.
InterDigital, whose engineers invented some of the technology for high-speed mobile phone networks now used by the world's biggest handset makers, has gained $1.4 billion since saying last week it hired banks to explore options including a sale. The $3.2 billion company, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, may cost more than $5 billion, Algorithm Capital and Dougherty & Co. said. That would be the most expensive deal in the wireless equipment industry relative to earnings in more than a decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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InterDigital holds 8,800 patents, about 15% of which are said to be related to mobile phone technologies and some of which have not been licensed, which increases their value. Some analysts have said that those wireless patents may indeed be worth more than Nortel's 4G LTE patents included in the package sold to the Apple consortium.

Article Link: HTC Looking to Strike Deal, Google and Apple Likely to Drive Up Price of Patent Acquisitions
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/26/htc-looking-to-strike-deal-google-and-apple-likely-to-drive-up-price-of-patent-acquisitions/
nwcs

nwcs

macrumors 68030
Sep 21, 2009
2,722
5,262
Tennessee
King Flamez1 said:
Apple has a lot of money, i just hope they don't use it all up on buying all the patents in the world
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They aren't that stupid. Besides governments won't let them. Apple will make a play for these, most likely, in another consortium. Maybe even with the same partners as with the Nortel acquisition.
 
FriarNurgle

FriarNurgle

macrumors regular
Jan 2, 2011
233
0
I know this is important to the industry, but is anyone else sick and tired of this patent BS?
 
whooleytoo

whooleytoo

macrumors 604
Aug 2, 2002
6,607
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Cork, Ireland.
King Flamez1 said:
Apple has a lot of money, i just hope they don't use it all up on buying all the patents in the world
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Wouldn't it be nice if they spent it on innovation, rather than patent purchases and lawsuits?

It seems to me it's a bottomless pit, with Apple and its competitors spending more time and money on acquiring patents for fear of the other side. Wouldn't it be a lot (say, a few billion dollars) cheaper just to sign some kind of patent truce? Naive, I know. :(
 
ChazUK

ChazUK

macrumors 603
Feb 3, 2008
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Essex (UK)
whooleytoo said:
It seems to me it's a bottomless pit, with Apple and its competitors spending more time and money on acquiring patents for fear of the other side. Wouldn't it be a lot (say, a few billion dollars) cheaper just to sign some kind of patent truce? Naive, I know. :(
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Very idealistic but I like it. :)

Pity it will never happen. :(
 
FrozenTomato

FrozenTomato

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2011
156
0
This will set a precedence. Next: Samsung,Motorola,ZTE, Acer,etc.


Seriously, this guys cant even do a good job at copying Apple.
 
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chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

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Oct 29, 2007
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Settlement is the best option. These patent disputes stifle marketplace competition, and ultimately, innovation. We as the consumers are the ones that ultimately suffer.
 
J

jaison13

macrumors 6502
Jun 20, 2003
253
7
pittsburgh
with nearly 90billion in cash on hand i doubt apple will go broke even spending 6billion on this company. you don't just get the patents, you get the tech that is being made there too. maybe the tech will make apple products better as well as protect them from google.
 
1

.11

macrumors member
Jun 17, 2011
47
0
Well this is gonna be interesting, the courts say HTC infringes on two of Apple's patents and they said Apple infringes on two of S3 Graphics's(owned by HTC now) patents.

Will they play nice and come out with a good deal for both sides? Or will it be another legal battle?
 
Chupa Chupa

Chupa Chupa

macrumors G5
Jul 16, 2002
14,835
7,396
whooleytoo said:
Wouldn't it be nice if they spent it on innovation, rather than patent purchases and lawsuits?
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A lot of innovation is tied up in existing patents. That is why there is a bidding war on particular ones like Nortel's portfolio, and why companies like Kodak win patent suits. Their products might be junk, but they have a nice portfolio too.
 
1

.11

macrumors member
Jun 17, 2011
47
0
FrozenTomato said:
This will set a precedence. Next: Samsung,Motorola,ZTE, Acer,etc.


Seriously, this guys cant even do a good job at copying Apple.
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Have you read that article or just the headline? Because there's no factual evidence or cited sources in the article.
 
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FrozenTomato

FrozenTomato

macrumors regular
Jul 22, 2011
156
0
chrmjenkins said:
Settlement is the best option. These patent disputes stifle marketplace competition, and ultimately, innovation. We as the consumers are the ones that ultimately suffer.
Click to expand...


You can use other people's patents/inventions. You just have to PAY for them.
 
ChazUK

ChazUK

macrumors 603
Feb 3, 2008
5,393
25
Essex (UK)
.11 said:
Have you read that article or just the headline? Because there's no factual evidence or cited sources in the article.
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I like TechCrunch but that was one of the worst articles I've come across on there. From the sensationalistic headline to the (lack of) content in the article.

A lot of the commenters are wise enough to not swallow it which is good. Makes great trollbait tho. :D
 
Rocketman

Rocketman

macrumors 603
Dec 2, 2001
6,191
1,186
Claremont, The intellectual capitol of the world.
jaison13 said:
you don't just get the patents, you get the tech that is being made there too
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This observation is good and begs the question of how much Apple has to invest to exploit the patents they purchase. Their R&D expense is only 2-3% depending on quarterly sales, which is tiny for an innovative tech company. This indicates they are narowly focused on specific projects and products and in no way have a goal of widely using patents they own on a range of products.

One wonders if they could form units to exploit aspects of patents Apple itself is not interested in so the stuff becomes monetized even though they are not readily licensed to competitors, except as forced by legal action.

Rocketman
 
T

Tones2

macrumors 65816
Jan 8, 2009
1,471
0
OK, no more patent related stories on the front page of MacRumors. What the poimt - everyone is suing everyone else. I'm so tired of these stories.

Tony
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Keep in mind: Apple’s always the bad guy in the legal domain... even though Apple is the most-sued tech company, and even though Apple is clearly the innovator driving every other company in both smartphones and tablets :p (Seriously, nobody can deny that the iPhone changed everything, and that every other successful touch OS, despite having certain unique and worthy details, is an attempt to mimic the iPhone. Android, WebOS and Windows Phone 7 would simply not exist in anything like their current forms without Apple innovation that came first. Other foundations exist too, but Apple’s work is key industry-wide. Android fans should love Apple, if they like what Apple has done to reshape Android!)
 
a.gomez

a.gomez

macrumors 6502a
Oct 10, 2008
924
726
and just like that - Apple has 2 and now HTC has 2 - and they will need to make a deal. now to the next round
 
nwcs

nwcs

macrumors 68030
Sep 21, 2009
2,722
5,262
Tennessee
chrmjenkins said:
Settlement is the best option. These patent disputes stifle marketplace competition, and ultimately, innovation. We as the consumers are the ones that ultimately suffer.
Click to expand...

Actually it's the reverse. Where is the incentive to come up with innovation if there is no way to protect it or guarantee some return on it? People are incentive driven in the real world, not altruistically driven.
 
L

-LikesMac-

macrumors 6502
Jun 20, 2010
429
23
Software patents blow :mad:

Who thinks that the software patent system should be rehauled? The reason there are so many lawsuits in USA is because of the broken system...:rolleyes:
 
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
FrozenTomato said:
You can use other people's patents/inventions. You just have to PAY for them.
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The problem is that so many of them are blatantly obvious to anyone in the field that it's counterproductive to allow them to be patented. Take the pinch to zoom. Touch screens had been using that maneuver a decade before apple used it on the iPhone. It was part of a standard set of widely understood gestures for existing touch screens at the time.

nwcs said:
Actually it's the reverse. Where is the incentive to come up with innovation if there is no way to protect it or guarantee some return on it? People are incentive driven in the real world, not altruistically driven.
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The market rewards innovation. Apple has seen its sale go through the roof because of it. Patents exist and do protect truly innovative products, but most are highly derivative and makes patent portfolios an offensive weapon against another's products rather than a defensive weapon to protect one's products.
 
S

scotth23

macrumors member
Oct 18, 2010
65
35
Don't worry...

about Apple's R&D. It's not as if they haven't devoted a ton of cash to their R&D over the last twenty years. This is cash that is above and beyond those expenses.

I wouldn't fret that they're buying patents and not developing. They're buying patents to develop WITH.
 
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