[Rumor] Google & Apple Conducting Secret Talks for a Patent Settlement

[dgstorm]

According to industry sources, Google and Apple are supposedly conducting "secret talks" behind the scenes in order to come up with a patent settlement agreement. Reuters reported that Larry Page, CEO of Google, and Tim Cook, CEO of Apple have recently had a private phone conversation in which they discussed "a range of intellectual property matters, including the ongoing mobile patent disputes between the companies." Additionally, according to Reuter's unnamed source, the two CEOs will likely talk again soon to continue negotiations for some kind of cease fire. Here's a quote from the Reuters article with some final details,

The two companies are keeping the lines of communication open at a high level against the backdrop of Apple's decisive legal victory in a patent infringement case against Samsung, which uses Google's Android software.

A jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages last Friday and set the stage for a possible ban on sales of some Samsung products in a case that has been widely viewed as a "proxy war" between Apple and Google.

One possible scenario under consideration could be a truce involving disputes over basic features and functions in Google's Android mobile software, one source said. But it's unclear whether Page and Cook are discussing a broad settlement of the various disputes between the two companies - most of which involve the burgeoning mobile computing area - or are focused on a more limited set of issues.

Could we finally see an end to some of the bitter patent wars? The answer is a definite... maybe.

Thanks for the tip, armeddroid!

Source: Reuters

 

[tgyberg]

Drop the flag Google. Let's go with a Trojan horse! Apple: hey, look at the nice gift from Google at our door! Let's bring it inside!! Door shuts, Google deploys giant green android shaped NUKE! FTW!

 

[NeoPhoenixTE]

I don't think a white flag image is appropriate here. No one's surrendering in this war.

Recommend a dove and/or olive branch....or some treaty type imagery....or at least a quiet battlefield.

 

[pc747]

would this image work better :biggrin:

 

[drew96dawg]

I don't think a white flag image is appropriate here. No one's surrendering in this war.

Recommend a dove and/or olive branch....or some treaty type imagery....or at least a quiet battlefield.

Or a door to express the behind the scenes way the talks are happening

Sent from my DROID2 using Xparent Blue Tapatalk 2

 

[dgstorm]

I don't think a white flag image is appropriate here. No one's surrendering in this war.

Recommend a dove and/or olive branch....or some treaty type imagery....or at least a quiet battlefield.

I see your point, but the white flag isn't just a sign of surrender. Traditionally it can also be a sign of truce to get negotiations going.

More specifically it means to "parlay" or to negotiate. Here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flag

 

[kodiak799]

Hopefully the white flag is not rectangular shaped with rounded edges....or it's on like donkey kong

 

[jughead75]

I've recently heard that Samsung holds 20 or so patents pertaining to hardware/software phones use to function on Verizons Lte network. Samsung could potentially sue Apple if the new iPhone is 4G. Can anyone confirm this to be true?

 

[Brightonbrad]

Seems to be true

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

 

[armeddroid]

Geez I hope this ends it.
Its time to move on from the patent wars and get back to innvoation.
Everyone knows that Apple is Innovation through Subjugation but its time for them to get it through their heads that competition is what fuels the industry for better products.
This only helps them and everyone else.
So Apple, now you have a chance to make things different since Jobs is gone; get it together because it will be you, Apple vs the World, and if you wanna go thermonuclear?
No one wins.

 

[nikecar]

so they are talking now, when a court ordered talk failed?

please. crazy talk here.

 

[pdroid]

strange game - the only winning move is not to play

 

[MissionImprobable]

Not at all; if you don't play you will be crushed into the dust.

 

[Xplorer4x4]

Geez I hope this ends it.
Its time to move on from the patent wars and get back to innvoation.
Everyone knows that Apple is Innovation through Subjugation but its time for them to get it through their heads that competition is what fuels the industry for better products.
This only helps them and everyone else.
So Apple, now you have a chance to make things different since Jobs is gone; get it together because it will be you, Apple vs the World, and if you wanna go thermonuclear?
No one wins.

Jobs may be gone but I suspect Apple will be following the direction of Steve Jobbs for some time to come. Maybe this is the reason Steve appointed Tim Cook CEO. After Steve's passing I was reading how there was a young Job protege high in the ranks at Apple that mimic Steve's since of style, taste, and general ideas and some people were surprised that Tim Cook, quite the opposite of Jobbs, was appointed CEO. Maybe Steve felt that Tim was the one with enough balls to carry forward Steve's ideas where as some one else may slowly move away from the values Steve used to run Apple. Then again, I could be wrong, but just something to consider.

so they are talking now, when a court ordered talk failed?

please. crazy talk here.

This was Samsung vs Apple, not Googlerola vs Apple.