Apple will spend $5 million to settle a suit filed by Elan
Microelectronics over the alleged violation of a patent for multitouch
technology, Elan said today.
As part of the settlement, the two companies have also received authorization to use each other's patents, according to Reuters.
In April 2009, Taiwan-based Elan filed its suit against Apple in U.S. District Court, accusing the
iPhone maker of violating a 1998 Elan patent
covering a method to detect the use of one or more fingers on a
touchpad. Apple then countersued Elan for alleging infringing on two
Apple touchpad-related patents.
Elan followed up the initial suit by filing a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in 2010 seeking to ban the import of the iPhone,
iPod Touch,
iPad, MacBook, and Magic Mouse into the U.S.
The ITC ruled in favor of Apple
last year, saying the company hadn't violated U.S. trade law. But Elan
continued to pursue its suit in U.S. District Court. With the case due
to go to trial in February, the two parties finally reached a
settlement.
Like many tech firms these days, Apple keeps its
lawyers busy dealing with a slew of patent infringement suits. The
company has been juggling various suits against Samsung, HTC, and Motorola.
In an unrelated matter, Apple has also been fined $1.2 million by the Italian government
over claims that the company encouraged customers to buy AppleCare
support even though they had two years of free support after buying an
Apple product.
Neither Apple nor Elan immediately responded to CNET's request for comment on the settlement.
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