San Francisco (dpa) - Apple and Google are discussing arbitration
procedures that could mark the beginning of the end of their
long-running war over smartphone patents.
In court filings released on Friday the two Silicon Valley giants
revealed they had been exchanging letters about using binding
arbitration to settle their disputes over widely used smartphone
patents. While the arbitration would be limited to industry standard
patents, the peace talks could expands to cover all patents at issue
between the two companies, they indicated.
Apple has sued numerous companies that make phones running on
Google's Android operating system for alleged patent violations.
Apple settled its case with Taiwanese company HTC last week. But is
has also been countersued by Samsung and by Motorola Mobility, which
was bought earlier this year by Google.
The letters filed Friday with a court in the US state of Wisconsin
related to Apple's claim that Motorola Mobility was demanding too
high a price to license smartphone patents that are needed to comply
with industry standards.
"Apple is also interested in resolving its dispute with Motorola
completely and agrees that arbitration may be the best vehicle to
resolve the parties' dispute," Apple said in the filing.
"We have long sought a path to resolving patent issues and we
welcome the chance to build on the constructive dialogue between our
companies," Google general counsel Kent Walker said in a letter to
Apple that was filed with the court. "While we prefer to seek a
framework for a global (rather than piecemeal) resolution that
addresses all of our patent disputes, we are committed to reaching
agreement on a license for our respective standard-essential
patents."
