Yep, in 2012 Apple and HTC announced a ten year utility patent cross license. (And also dropped all lawsuits.) The license includes both current and future patents during those ten years.
The only thing that HTC is prevented from doing, is making an exact copy of something Apple was using. E.g. they could use Apple's slide-to-unlock patent, as long as the slider images didn't look the same.
Ironically, since settling with Apple, HTC has gone downhill with sales. On the other hand, it looks like Apple took advantage of HTC's years of proprietary automatic antenna tuning R&D.
I heard that rumor too. Seemed like a neat idea.
However, teardowns indicate that the NFC antenna is at the top, apparently so that users can tap more easily.
