Apple offers legal settlements to mobile rivals

Proposes licensing fee.

Apple is proposing patent licensing deals to settle pending lawsuits involving Samsung and Motorola Mobility, Dow Jones Newswires reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.

Apple, which sued Motorola Mobility in October 2010 for patent infringement, has proposed a licensing fee of between $US5 and $15 per handset, or 1 percent to 2.5 percent of net sales per device. Apple isn't offering settlements to other mobile vendors, according to the report.

Apple is suing several Android OEMs for infringing iPhone patents. In December, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that HTC would be barred from importing infringing Android smartphones to the U.S. starting April 19, 2012.

Apple sued Samsung last April for infringing on its patents in the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy smartphones. Samsung responded with a countersuit, and the companies have sought to halt sales of each other's products in various countries worldwide.

What's intriguing is that Apple also uses Samsung chips in its products, though the two companies have said this aspect of their relationship hasn't been affected by the legal fight. Last October, reports surfaced that Apple planned to use Samsung’s A6 quad-core mobile processor in the next version of the iPhone.

Apple's settlement forays could bring calm to the legal Battle Royale that's currently raging in the mobile market, and they could also show how Apple plans to handle such issues in the post Steve Jobs era. In January 2010, the former Apple CEO famously railed against Google in a town hall with Apple employees days after the release of the first iPad.

"We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them," Jobs reportedly said at the event.

This article originally appeared at crn.com