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Apple latest to settle lawsuit with e-Watch over iPhone camera technology

Apple has reached a settlement with a San Antonio, Tex.-based firm called e-Watch, which claimed that the company was violating two U.S. patents related to cellphone cameras.

A joint motion to dismiss the suit was filed in a Texas court on Friday, Law360 said. The terms of the settlement weren't immediately clear.

The two patents, 7,365,871 and 7,643,168, both cover "capturing, converting and transmitting a visual image signal via a digital transmission system."

e-Watch launched a flurry of related complaints against electronics manufacturers in 2013, some other targets being Sony, Sharp, Nokia, BlackBerry, and Kyocera. Apple is simply the latest to settle in the matter, and was accused of infringing through devices like the iPhone 4S.

The new settlement likely involves a one-time payment, since Apple is normally eager to avoid increasing royalties on its products. In fact the company is now in the middle of a lawsuit against chip supplier Qualcomm, arguing that some $1 billion in rebates were unfairly withheld because it decided to cooperate with South Korean antitrust regulators.

Qualcomm for its part has called Apple's claims "baseless," and even suggested that the iPhone maker provoked "regulatory attacks" by "misrepresenting facts and withholding information."