Apple has been embroiled in several legal disputes against their Android competitors, and most notably would be their legal battles with both Samsung and Motorola, where injunctions again each other’s products have been granted on an alarmingly frequent basis. However in an interesting turn of events, it seems that Apple might be having a change of heart as it has been reported that Apple is currently offering licensing deals to both Motorola and Samsung.
Ironically it seems that Apple is asking for $5 to $15 per device sold, which basically amounts to 1-2.5% of device sales, a figure which Motorola has requested from Apple in the past only to have the Cupertino company deem that figure “unreasonable”. Some are speculating that perhaps Apple might have wised up especially since both sides have seen a mix of victories and setbacks. Others are saying that due to the widespread adoption of Android, injunctions are no longer practical and that licensing out their patents would add on to the cost of Android, making it a slightly less appealing prospect for manufacturers.
In any case, these legal battles have affected not just the companies involved, but their customers who might not be able to purchase certain devices in their country due to an injunction. We certainly hope that we will one day be able to see all this legal madness come to an end, so perhaps this is a step in the right direction that perhaps Apple should have taken a long time ago.