A U.K. judge has ruled in favor of HTC over claims that the Taiwanese smartphone vendor infringes four of Apple’s patents for touchscreen technology, including its famous slide-to-unlock feature. Judge Christopher Floyd decided that HTC’s smartphones are not guilty of infringement, and that three of Apple’s four patents are invalid.
Apple won a preliminary injunction against US sales of the Galaxy Nexus phone last week. Today, Samsung was denied a stay on the ban by Judge Lucy Koh, the main judge in the current case brought to court against Samsung’s smartphone as well as its Galaxy Tab.
It may not matter as much, however, as Google and Samsung have readied a patch to address the specific grievance, according to a post on The Verge.
Apple has begun issuing its employees with Apple-branded hoodies as a thank you for all their hard work during a terrific year for the Cupertino company. In addition to a free hoody, employees also got extra vacation time over Thanksgiving, and some departments were given personalized noted from higher-level staff, according to 9to5Mac.
