The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled in favor of Apple and declared a ban on the import of many HTC devices in the US, including flagship phones like the Sprint Evo 4G and Verizon Droid Incredible. The ruling would effectively end HTC’s business in the US.
After a lengthy back-and-forth between the two companies, the ITC has ruled that HTC infringes on two of Apple’s patents. Should the President of the United States decide to let the decision pass through, the ban will be put into effect on April 19, 2012. HTC plans to implement “alternate solutions” to combat the ruling.
The Verge reports:
After a lengthy review, the Commission found that HTC devices infringe two claims of patent #5,946,647, which is a system level patent issued in 1999 on analyzing and linking data structures— ultimately implicating the heart of Android itself and not HTC’s specific implementation.The decision now goes to the desk of the president, who has 60 days to issue a rarely-used veto; the ban itself will go into effect on April 19, 2012 to provide HTC with a transition period, and HTC will be allowed to import refurbished products for warranty replacement purposes until December 19, 2013.
Due to the nature of the exclusion order in the ruling, HTC devices that are already being sold in the US shouldn’t be affected. But until the cases of infringement are fixed by HTC, Apple could use its newfound clout to go after all of the HTC phones running the newer versions of Android (2.3, 3.0, and 4.0).
Apple could theoretically use this new ruling to go after any other Android handset maker, as the main patent in question is a system level part of the Android OS. HTC has said that it will simply remove the infringing patent from its phones. The company called it a “small UI experience” in an official statement:
We are gratified that the Commission affirmed the judge’s initial determination on the ‘721 and ‘983 patents, and reversed its decision on the ‘263 patent and partially on the ‘647 patent. We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. However, the ‘647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.
Apple’s official response:
We think competition is healthy but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
17 responses to “Apple Wins Huge Battle Against HTC In US Patent Case, HTC Fighting Back [Report]”
“Should the President of the United States decide to let the decision pass through …” WTF?
The USA is a monarchy now? Or a totalitarian state? What the f*ck has the President got to do with anything? He or she shouldn’t have the power to overrule a court decision. Don’t you folks believe in Democracy down there?
Wow wow, calm down! First of all, the president of the United States, along with state governors have the authority to pardon any kind of crime. As far as overturning it, I don’t think that’s possible. When they pardon it, it just means that “Yeah they did it, but we’re not going to do anything to them.” This happens with governors and death row inmates.
Don’t feed the anti-American troll. He’s just making his daily rounds.
We’re talking about a ruling from the United States International Trade Commission. While administrative law judges conduct a trial-like administrative hearing, it is not a court of law. This article gives no indication but there are several avenues of recourse HTC may take… hence the 4 month window.
Apple “Think Different” = “Think Anti Competitive”, Think Protect The Monopoly”, “Think Crush The Little Guy”, “Think We’ll Call Competitors Thieves”
Appalling.
HTC are the Litte Guy ?
What I take away from the ruling: it’s somewhat a symbolic win, but definitely not what Apple wanted to hear. Out of the 10 patents they sued HTC over, they only won 1. And it only applies on UI elements found in Android 1.6 (Donut) to 2.2 (Froyo), which are no longer shipped in new devices. Meanwhile, HTC is already working on a fix for those older/infringing versions of HTC Sense (as they should), and the ruling wouldn’t have taken effect until April 2012 anyway. HTC got away easy on that one.
Appalling? Then how do you feel about this: HTC Corporation has extended its legal action against Apple Inc., amending its existing complaints with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. District Court of Delaware, as well as filing an additional case in Delaware for patent infringement by Apple’s iOS devices.”HTC will continue to protect its patented inventions against infringement from Apple until such infringement stops. We believe that we have an obligation to protect our business, our industry partners and our customers, who love using our products.” said Grace Lei, General Counsel of HTC.
Get a clue before you post the hate.
I just can’t believe Apple can be granted a patent for something so broad as that, tapping a piece of information that then takes you to the corresponding software or action……. It’s just madness.
I think its a shame that today one company can shut down another company for using something that is just a common sense feature that shouldn’t be patented at all.
One thing is for sure; this is not a good result for us the consumer. Only apple and its shareholders can be happy about this.
2012 is going to be the “Year of the Patent”. Anarchy and chaos awaits.
You do know that Samsung sued Apple because of 3G and emoticon like :-) right?
So which 1 is more broad right now?
Yeah that’s just nuts isn’t it? They’re all just as bad as each other, its just pathetic.
They may be trying to protect their best interests and simply using a broken system to do so but they sure as heck aren’t doing any favours for their reputations are they?
And the prize for todays most misleading article title goes to….
Alex Heath.
Seriously, you think this is a “huge win”? Apple went into this claiming initially 10 patent violations, which they then dropped to 4, of which 3 weren’t granted, and the one that was is possibly the wooliest of the lot, and is something that has already been superceded in the latest versions of Android (as others have already pointed out). HTC will release a code fix well within the timeline requested, and continue shipping to the USA.
Cult of Morons strikes again!
This was as minor a win as it gets, according to every other website on the internet.
Everyone is the “little guy” compared to Apple.
Pretty soon, Apple will come out with iCar and claim that all other automobiles and things rolling on 4 wheels that carry people and goods are infringing upon their patent.
My guess is, they have a time machine, they go back and create the patent on something, then sue competitors in the present. Effing brilliant, really.
I’m leaning towards 2012: The Year of Ever-Growing Fascism Markets :P