Following its agreement with HTC, Apple is now in talks with Google’s Motorola Mobility over resolving disputes relating to standards essential patents, reports Bloomberg.
Critically, Apple has outright said it is ‘interested in resolving its dispute with Motorola completely” and feels that “arbitration may be the best vehicle to resolve the parties’ dispute.” This news follows Apple’s previous declaration that it would pay Google’s Motorola Mobility for patent licensing, but no more than $1 per device sold.
In essence, this means Apple and Motorola are on track to smoothing out some of their patent issues, notably excluding issues regarding non-essential patents, which in turn could slightly ease the mounting tension between Apple and Motorola’s parent company, Google. Optimistically speaking, an agreement on SES patents could lead to an overall friendlier relationship between the two battling tech giants, but for now, it’s far too early to tell.
It’s noteworthy that Apple and Google’s relationship is particularly important to the overall success of Android, as the threat of additional licensing fees and legal trouble between Apple and other Android OEMs could eventually harm the Android ecosystem.
The debate of innovation vs litigation rages on, and it looks like for the time being, the importance of software and hardwares patents is only set to grow in the tech scene. Resolutions like these, however, aren’t a bad sign.
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