Apple offered to license its portfolio of patents to Samsung in 2010

The high-profile patent trial between Apple and Samsung has exposed some pretty interesting intel on both companies. But the information brought to light tonight might be the best yet.

According to some new court filings, executives from the two tech heavyweights met in hopes of reaching a settlement back in 2010. And Apple actually offered Samsung a licensing deal…

AllThingsD reports:

“In October 2010, Apple offered to license its portfolio of patents to Samsung provided the Korean company was willing to pay on the order of $30 per smartphone and $40 per tablet.

“Samsung chose to embrace and imitate Apple’s iPhone archetype,” Apple said in an Oct. 5, 2010 presentation to Samsung. “Apple would have preferred that Samsung request a license to do this in advance. Because Samsung is a strategic supplier to Apple, we are prepared to offer a royalty-bearing license for this category of device.”

In addition to this, Apple offered to drop the fees by 20% if Samsung agreed to cross-license its own patents. The Korean company has a large collection of wireless IP and standards essentials patents.

Obviously, the deal didn’t end up going through. But imagine if it had. A majority of the litigation between the two companies would have never happened — and for how much? Apple estimates that Samsung would have had to pay up around $250 million in 2010, which is chump change compared to the $2.5 billion it’s looking for now.