One of the embattled band of Taiwanese clonemakers, Mitac International Corp, has finally reached a settlement with IBM on patents and now has a three-year agreement that allows it – for a price – to use patents on the IBM XT, AT and PS/2 Micro Channel Architecture machines: Mitac has agreed in principle to pay a one-time 1% of all relevant past sales as an entrance fee, and future royalties will range from 1% to 5% according to product and into which market it is sold – in the US it will pay 3% on current products and 2% outside the US, and future PS/2 patents will be approved and checked and royalties will then be decided by negotiation; Mitac believes it is the first Taiwan firm to sign such an agreement – others are still talking.
