Samsung Won’t Deal with Apple

The head of Samsung’s mobile and IT unit told a reporter:

It may be true that HTC may have agreed to pay 300 billion won (US$276 million) to Apple, but we don’t intend to [negotiate] at all.

In the Apple-HTC settlement, the details of which have not been announced, the two companies agreed to dismiss all existing patent lawsuits and adopt a 10-year cross-licensing agreement. One report has HTC paying Apple $6 to $8 for every phone it ships from now on.

Samsung is currently appealing a $1.05 billion California jury’s judgment against the Korean company, and has actually won some of the rulings in courts around the world. The company probably doesn’t see any reason to quit.

And while Samsung is not as valuable as Apple, the Korean firm is way more valuable than the struggling HTC. If Apple hadn’t settled, it faced the prospect of getting nothing from the Taiwanese firm. Samsung’s deeper pockets and the company’s threat to Apple’s hardware sales lead could lead the U.S. firm to continue the legal actions. Apple can surely afford it.

Paul Ausick