The last couple of weeks have seen quite a few wins for Apple in court. Bans against US sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and new Galaxy Nexus phone, for starters, were successful.
Apple’s request for an “emergency ban” for HTC phones, however, was denied today, allowing smartphone manufacturer HTC to continue to sell its latest devices while the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) investigates Apple’s patent infringement claim against the Taiwanese-based company.
According to Bloomberg’s Businessweek, The ITC denied the emergency request from Apple to have smartphones like the EVO 4G LTE and the One X stopped at the US border, just like they had been detained in May. HTC assured customs at the time that it had removed the infringing code , and the phones were allowed into the country. The patent involves the way telephone numbers are detected in email.
Apple filed another complaint last month, saying that HTC’s assurances were inaccurate. Apparently, the ITC disagrees.
“The commission finds that Apple has not demonstrated the propriety of temporary emergency action here,” wrote the ITC, as quoted at Businessweek. “The commission will not direct Customs to detain all subject HTC products because the commission does not have the information necessary to determine whether the respondents are currently violating the commission’s limited exclusion order.”
All these court battles back and forth are bound to get confusing, so here’s a little scorecard: Samsung cannot sell their Galaxy Tab or their Nexus phone in the US, but HTC can. Stay tuned!
Via: 9To5 Mac
Source: Businessweek
Image: Digital Trends
