Apple, HTC end patent battle

The U.S.'s Apple and Taiwanese phonemaker HTC settled their outstanding disputes over patents. The two firms also signed a 10-year global licence agreement that will extend to current and future patents held by one other. The deal ends a legal fight that dates back to 2010 when Apple sued HTC accusing it of infringing the iPhone's patented technology. Apple has come to previous patent agreements with Microsoft and Nokia, but this is the first tme it has settled with a smartphone maker that uses the main rival to its own technology, Google's Android.