Apple’s worldwide patent settlement with HTC is set to automatically expire should either firm get acquired by a third-party, patent blogger Florian Müeller discovered combing through court documents. Even more so, a so-called “change of control” clause is mostly beneficial to Apple given its $110+ billion cash pile making Silicon Valley’s most powerful company literally unlikely to be snapped up any time soon.
But if HTC gets bought, Apple’s prized iPhone patents licensed to the Taiwanese handset maker remain encumbered. What’s more, in case of such an outcome Apple is theoretically free to reassert its claims. The settlement also involves HTC subsidiaries S3 Graphics and VIA technologies, both of which were asserting patents against Apple in the past… Read More
