By Edwin Chan
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has ordered
Apple Inc to disclose to rival Samsung Electronics details of a
legal settlement the iPhone maker reached with Taiwan's HTC
Corp, including terms of a 10-year patents licensing agreement.
The Korean electronics giant had earlier filed a motion to
compel its U.S. rival -- with whom it is waging a bitter legal
battle over mobile patents across several countries -- to reveal
details of the settlement that was reached on Nov. 10 with HTC
but which have been kept under wraps.
In August, the iPhone maker won a $1.05 billion verdict
against Samsung after a U.S. jury found that certain Samsung
gadgets violated Apple's software and design patents.
Now, legal experts say the question of which patents are
covered by the Apple-HTC settlement, and licensing details,
could be instrumental in Samsung's efforts to thwart Apple's
subsequent quest for a permanent sales ban on its products.
The Asian company has argued it is "almost certain" that the
HTC deal covers some of the same patents involved in its own
litigation with Apple.
The court on Wednesday ordered Apple to produce a full copy
of the settlement agreement "without delay", subject to an
Attorneys-Eyes-Only designation.
Representatives for the U.S. company could not immediately
be reached for comment.
Samsung also requested the California court to add three
newly released Apple products -- the iPod Touch 5, the iPad 4
and the iPad mini -- to the list of devices that it claims to
have infringed on some of its patents, according to court
documents.
The settlement of Apple and HTC ended their worldwide
litigation and brought to a close one of the first major
flare-ups in the global smartphone patent wars.
Apple first sued HTC in 2010, setting in motion a legal
conflagration that has since circled the globe and engulfed the
biggest names in mobile technology, from Samsung to Google Inc's
Motorola Mobility unit.
(Additional reporting by Miyoung Kim)
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