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According to Reuter’s report ^[2], Taiwan-based company Elan Microelectronics has announced a settlement of a patent dispute with Apple related to multi-touch technology. Elan states that Apple has agreed to cross-license some patents and pay $5 million to avoid future disputes regarding said intellectual property.

The patent infringement dispute between companies began in 2009, when Elan filed a suit against Apple over infringement of a patent describing the detection of multi-touch input on Apple’s notebooks, iOS devices and some accessories. Apple also had filed a counter-suit against Elan in 2009 to get leverage in the legal argument.

In 2010, Elan turned to the International Trade Commission in the US, seeking to ban ^[3] imports of Apple’s devices, but the ITC found in Apple’s favor in 2011.