HTC, along with most other Android smartphone makers who are facing a ban on their phones in the USA after Apple won a recent patent court ruling are scrambling to work out what to do next.
Lawyers for HTC said that they will appeal the ruling which if lost could have a “devastating” impact on all Android phone makers say analysts.
HTC claim that they “strongly believe” it has alternate solutions in place to address the patent-infringement issues. It added that in another patent-infringement case, the ITC has already ruled that Apple infringed on the patents of HTC’s recently acquired S3 Graphics unit.
Late yesterday in Taiwan HTC shares fell by as much as 5% after falling 16% over the last nine trading days.
Yuanta Securities said “it will be difficult for HTC’s stock price to outperform until all these patent uncertainties are settled.”
Yuanta went on to claim that HTC will find ways to bypass the patents Apple says it infringed on, but that will take time and could involve performance compromises.
The firm added that in a worst-case scenario, HTC would likely settle with Apple, leading to increased costs as the company could pay royalty fees of around US$3 per device to Apple.
This coupled with a tipped $15 royalty payment to Microsoft could make Android phones significantly more expensive than an iPhone or one of the new Nokia Windows phones which is due later this year.
The Wall Street Journal claims that analysts have said HTC may use S3’s portfolio of patents as leverage to work out a gross-licensing agreement with Apple. The battle over intellectual property between the two companies deepened this month when Apple filed a second complaint to the ITC over technology involved in scrolling and multitouch gesturing used to control smartphones.
