ITC makes preliminary ruling in favor of Apple in patent infringement case with HTC

A U.S. ITC judge on Monday issued a preliminary ruling that Apple did not infringe on four HTC patents. HTC and Apple are slugging it out in different courts around the globe. Back in July, the ITC made a preliminary ruling that HTC had infringed on two of Apple's patents and a final verdict is due on December 6th. The four patents involved in Monday's ruling have to do withlooking up phone numbers and dialing them quickly on a smartphone, and managing power consumption on a mobile device.

HTC's General Counsel Grace Lei said in a statement that the ITC's ruling is "just one step in the process" and Lei is confident that HTC has a "strong case for the ITC appeals process". But more important rulings lie ahead, according to the Wall Street Journal. The big financial daily says that upcoming rulings will decide whether or not HTC's products can be banned from entering the States. On November 13th, the ITC will decide on a preliminary ruling if Apple infringed on a pair of patents owned by S3 Graphics, a company HTC is in the process of acquiring. December 6th should bring the aforementioned final ruling on the pair of Apple patents that the ITC said in a preliminary ruling that HTC infringed upon.

Apple's goal with these suits is to get an injunction against HTC devices from entering the States. Birdy Lu, an analyst for Samsung Securities (that's the real name of the firm, folks!) says thata cross-licensing agreement between Apple and HTC is probably in the cards especially after HTC earlier sued Apple over patents that Google had transferred over to the Taiwan based manufacturer. Lu believes that HTC has a strong case against Apple in that suit, although a decision is about a year away.

source: WallStreetJournal