HTC patent infringement claim against Apple dismissed by ITC
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The battle between the two companies started in March 2010 when Apple filed a suit against HTC with the ITC. HTC retaliated and the ITC eventually found no violation on Apple's part. In October 211, an ALJ made an initial ruling that Apple did not violate 4 HTC patents and the latter withdrew a complaint on a 5th patent. HTC asked for an appeal by the 6 member ITC to review the ruling. In December, the ITC agreed, but only for one of HTC's patents. The ruling Friday ends the filings and investigations on that one patent.
S3 had its own infringement case against Apple, possibly motivated by Apple's actions against HTC. At a time when it looked like S3 might win the case, HTC made the decision to buy the company and take over the patents. In November, the ITC ruled in favor of Apple. According to FOSS Patents, with only 5% of smartphone patents ruled as being violated by the ITC, companies are turning to the German courts, especially the Mannheim Regional Court and the Munich I Regional Court, for relief.
In December, Apple won an import ban against HTC devices that infringed on the '647 patent relating to "data tapping" or the tapping on phone numbers to call someone back. HTC worked around this by removing the offending technology and said it is rarely used. FOSS Patents sees Apple looking to broaden the scope of the ruling by getting a ruling that another patent had been violated by appealing to the Federal Circuit. Meanwhile, for the rest of 2012, we probably will not see any final rulings in the U.S. on Apple's claims against HTC since all of the former's Federal lawsuits against HTC have been stayed by the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. A preliminary ruling from the ITC is due in November on Apple's second complaint against HTC. Nothing might come up until next year in Germany where Apple has two suits filed against HTC for four patents, two in Munich and two in Mannheim.
Last summer, HTC filed a suit against Apple, claiming that the latter illegally infringed upon 9 patents Google gave to HTC for the express reason to sue Apple. Of course, it will be up to the court to determine if these 9 patents offer a stronger case against Apple than the one that was tossed on Friday.
source: FOSSPatents
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26 Comments
1. bvalde09 posted on 19 Feb 2012, 00:19 7 0
Could we serioulsy stop this BS This is getting ridiculous and Im tired of lawsuit. FOCUS ON THE CUSTOMERS
2. gallitoking posted on 19 Feb 2012, 01:17 3 7
Both HTC and Apple have a toll free number for the customer...if you need help
7. parkwaydr posted on 19 Feb 2012, 08:42 4 3
Your user icon fits you well gallito, much like that show you are pointless, annoying, and very rarely mildly humorous.
21. bvalde09 posted on 20 Feb 2012, 00:51 0 0
Lol. Ok But seriously look how much money the have spent on lawsuits. Like the "slide to unlock". You are a consumer at the end right? why dont apple put that money down to give us a good device? I was expecting the Iphone 4s to be something out of the world but it wasnt. Wouldnt you agree that they could do so much better if the focus on the customers?
23. gallitoking posted on 20 Feb 2012, 12:39 0 0
I only demmand that from my doctor..
19. Lucas777 posted on 19 Feb 2012, 18:38 2 0
did u not consider they might just be right? or wud apple actually being in the right just be impossible…
24. thnkthru3 posted on 21 Feb 2012, 09:28 0 0
The odds against their being "right" 100% of the time are high.The fact that apple has more money than the federal government...yet they contnuously focus on legal rather than product developement means for taking out the competition. This is what I find so annoying. I love their products but they halve already reached that "too big to fail" status. I don"t want to live in the "United States of Apple"
25. Lucas777 posted on 21 Feb 2012, 09:33 2 0
how are they not focusing on product development? they are releasing mac os once a year (more than in years past) and are releasing new ipads, iphones, and ipods every year… even rumored to be working on tv
and they arent 100% of the time… just often
26. thnkthru3 posted on 21 Feb 2012, 09:42 0 0
Gave you a thumbs up on your reply!
4. aztaxia12295 posted on 19 Feb 2012, 02:13 13 1
the itc is apples female dog.
HTC should sue the ITC for the last two letters in its name.
5. Devon posted on 19 Feb 2012, 03:17 4 0
Can Phonearena please stop quoting Fosspatents on this stuff like these. We all know Florian hates Google so much that he gives a spin that everything is going bad for google but when MS or Apple is in trouble he downplays it. Just quote reuters then.
14. sprockkets posted on 19 Feb 2012, 15:22 0 0
His reporting is fine, but his analysis is a bit off. Just remember the guy uses a Samsung Galaxy Note, and had an Galaxy S phone.
6. roscuthiii posted on 19 Feb 2012, 08:22 1 0
Patents: The new landmines. Get as many of them as you can out there; You only need one in the right place and the right time to freeze a company in it's tracks.
9. Droid_X_Doug posted on 19 Feb 2012, 09:30 1 4
And if Google's notification patent application is allowed as filed, Apple will be in a world of hurt. Can you imagine iOS without a notification function? Or, better yet, iOS with a notification function that does not display messages?
What goes around comes around.
