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A comment on HTC Buys S3 Graphics From VIA, WTI For $300 Million.

Re:HTC Buys S3 Graphics From VIA, WTI For $300 Million by Tuna-Fish on Wednesday July 06, 2011 @08:01AM (#2733466)
The patent angle is also interesting -- S3 did some important early 3d acceleration research, and it is literally impossible to ship a modern system that uses either Direct3D or OpenGL without licensing some S3 patents. Every single laptop, notebook, game console or handset on the market today uses S3 tech, and now HTC has the ability to stop them from being sold. This is just the kind of blunt instrument that HTC needs to keep Apple and it's patent claims at bay.
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Re:HTC Buys S3 Graphics From VIA, WTI For $300 Million by msbarnett on Wednesday July 06, 2011 @10:33AM (#2734045)
Erm, how would that work? Apple is just shipping PowerVR chips. Presumably PowerVR has the proper licenses, or a cross-licensing agreement with S3.
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Re:HTC Buys S3 Graphics From VIA, WTI For $300 Million by th0ma5 on Wednesday July 06, 2011 @10:51AM (#2734130)
Then they would revoke the PowerVR license then in that case, right? Or at the very least modify the terms?
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Re:HTC Buys S3 Graphics From VIA, WTI For $300 Million by cma on Wednesday July 06, 2011 @11:45AM (#2734401)
That isn't how contracts work unless that was explicitly in the original agreement.
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Re:HTC Buys S3 Graphics From VIA, WTI For $300 Million by enjo on Wednesday July 06, 2011 @10:25AM (#2734025)
I wonder if this is more protective against Microsoft?
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Re:HTC Buys S3 Graphics From VIA, WTI For $300 Million by MostAwesomeDude on Wednesday July 06, 2011 @12:18PM (#2734566)
The relevant licensee is Microsoft, who got the ability from S3 to sublicense S3TC as DXTC. A little bit of every graphics card sold today goes back to Microsoft for that patent.
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