If only I could read some of it.

Here’s what I know after reading through the contract:

• It’s between Apple and HTC
• Apple is in Cupertino
• HTC is in Taiwan
• “Apple Products” means Apple products
• The companies are agreeing not to sue each other and to settle or dismiss all existing lawsuits
• The license is royalty-free EXCEPT as set forth in Section 6.2 … which is blanked out.
• Even if Apple sells its patents, HTC still has a license to them
• The license does not include any Apple design patents
• HTC has to pay Apple electronically, 45 days after the end of each quarter
• The contract has a ten-year life-span

Exciting, isn’t it, this massive revealing of deep, dark corporate secrets? Here’s what I don’t know:

• Exactly what products are covered
• What “HTC Android Mobile Communications Devices” means
• What features “Mobile Communications Devices” must have to be part of this agreement
• How much HTC is paying for the license

That’s pretty much it, although the contract runs to 143 pages. One of the terms — 13.9 to be exact — states that it is to be entirely confidential. That’s out of the window now, but not really. Everything important is still hidden.

Which is pretty much as expected.

Here’s the document:

Apple-HTC Settlement (Redacted)

Based on analyst estimates, many media outlets — yes, VentureBeat included — had reported that HTC was paying Apple between $6 and $8 for each and every Android-based smartphone it was selling.

According to HTC chief executive Peter Chou, that’s outrageous. In a statement to Reuters at product launch in Tokyo, Chou said those numbers are “baseless and very, very wrong.”

Two weeks ago Apple had been the one to announce that it had reached a global settlement with HTC which closed all lawsuits and licensed current and future patents )out to ten years in the future). Typically, the announcing company is the company which has “won,” or the company which is getting paid.

That is still the case, but Chou refused to comment on any specific number. The terms of the agreement were, after all, announced as confidential.

The question now is Samsung: Can Apple and Samsung get together and bury the hatchet so each can focus on creating and selling great technology? Samsung is going to have to write a check, but the question is how big.

Now, maybe that amount is less than what we originally thought.

photo credit: closari via photopin cc