Gateway settles HP patent dispute

HP has accepted $47m from Gateway to settle three lawsuits covering 27 patents

HP and computer manufacturer Gateway have agreed to settle three lawsuits that cover a total of 27 patents. 

Joe Beyers, vice president of intellectual property licensing at HP, told vnunet.com that the disputed patents covered technologies including notebook power management, a cursor display mechanism for desktop computers and keyboard functionalities with peripheral devices.

Gateway has agreed to pay $47m, of which $30.3m goes towards a seven-year licence for HP's patent portfolio for servers and desktop computers. The remaining $16.7m is earmarked to settle the 2004 lawsuits without any admission of fault.

HP owns about 6,000 PC and server patents and has started to more actively license and protect its intellectual property portfolio in the past three years, according to Beyers.

"Our desire is for companies to recognise the value of our intellectual property," he said. "We prefer to avoid litigation. This is the only case where we had resort to litigation."

Beyers declined to say how many patent licence deals the company had closed in recent years, citing confidentiality conditions. He did say that HP has about 115 licence negotiations underway.