Apple, HTC settle patent disputes; sign 10-year licence agreement

Apple Inc and HTC Corp have settled their outstanding patent disputes. In a joint statement released on Sunday, the two companies said they also signed a 10-year license agreement that will extend to current and future patents held by one another.

HTC chief executive Peter Chou says ending the litigation will allow his company to focus more on product innovation.

California-based Apple and Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC had battled over the patents for various smartphone features since March 2010.

Apple was claiming that HTC phones running Google's Android software had infringed on patents it held.

HTC has grown as the first maker of phones running on Android software. But its sales faltered from the second half of 2011 in a market increasingly divided between Apple and Samsung Electronics Co .