Apple scores limited victory against HTC

In the ongoing sue-fest between Apple and HTC, Apple was handed a limited victory today by the U.S. International Trade Commission, which could theoretically result in the banning of some handsets. In strategic terms it may be a larger victory for HTC and the Android ecosystem, as the ITC only endorsed a limited view of the sweep of Apple’s patent.

HTC announced via email that they already have a work-around solution to avoid what is known as the ‘647 patent, which is relates to letting a quick-contact pop up occur when a user clicks on an email address or phone number.

That means that no HTC phones will actually stop shipping. Apple may choose to try and challenge HTC’s work-around, claiming they are still in violation, but that would take several more months to get a ruling. Strategically, the fact that the ITC only upheld a narrow view of the ‘647 patent means that Android in general will probably not be negatively impacted by the ruling, especially with changes to this specific technology already seen in the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android.

So Apple wins a small battle, but hasn’t made much progress in the war. Don’t fret, we can surely expect more rulings to be handed down on both sides in the coming months.

And years…

source: FOSS Patents and BGR