Chalk one up for the bad guys. FOSS Patents reports that Chinese manufacturer Huawei and the Rockstar Consortium (a patent holding company jointly owned by Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Sony, and Ericsson) have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed against Huawei in November. Both parties have filed to dismiss with prejudice, and have almost certainly agreed to some kind of licensing settlement, though financial details don't have to be reported.
Rockstar and its parent companies are suing over telecom patents sold from the defunct Nortel Networks in 2011 for a cool $4.5 billion. The consortium is also suing Google, Samsung, LG, ASUS, ZTE, and Pantech in the same Eastern Texas district court. Huawei is the first company to file for dismissal and likely settle - presumably Google and the rest are still fighting.
While the terms of any settlement aren't known, including which patents might be licensed and which might be ignored, there's no escaping the fact that this is a bad sign for the remaining defendant companies. You can bet that Huawei wouldn't part with one more cent than they had to, while Microsoft, Apple, Sony and company wouldn't let their competitors get away with paying any less than they think they could manage. The patent cases against the remaining six companies will likely take months (at least) to be resolved.
Source: FOSS Patents
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