Patent holding company NTP has announced that it has inked settlement agreements with many of the biggest names in the tech industry. The 13 companies, including wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile; smartphone manufacturers Apple, HTC, Motorola Mobility, Palm, LG, and Samsung; and e-mail service and software providers Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo.
The settlement brings an end to the ongoing litigation, which focused on eight patents related to e-mail delivery via wireless networks.
NTP has declined to disclose the amount of compensation it is receiving from the 13 companies, though the same patents were asserted in a related lawsuit that eventually led to a $612 million settlement from Research In Motion. It is unclear if the Virginia-based patent holder pushed for the same one-time payout it received from the BlackBerry maker, or if the companies agreed to pay future royalties.
The latest suit started in 2007 with filings against wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. The lawsuits were expanded in 2010, adding additional defendants such as Apple, HTC, LG, Microsoft, Palm, Yahoo, Samsung and Motorola.
