I've just read some interesting comments on The register. I won't bother linking to them as I haven't found anything 'official' to back up the claims. However, someone is claiming that the situation is like this.
HTC bought a company (ADC) for $75m in order to own the patents that they are suing Apple over. No problem with that. Apple are claiming that ADC were not only involved in the standards procedures for 4G but that these two patents are included in the standard. As such, ADC have
1 - hidden information from the standards body so the patents were either included in FRAND or so that a work around was devolved for the standard
2 - refused to licence to Apple when it is impossible to have 4G without those patents
So it's entirely possible that the patents will be found to be invalid or that HTC MUST licence them to Apple on FRAND terms. Its also possible that both HTC and ADC will be investigated regading anti trust.
If true, then I really can't see apple losing this one at all.
Edit: I've managed to find thorough analysis of apples claims I mentioned above.
http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/07/h...t-license.html