Apple’s latest lawsuit against smartphones running Google’s Android is up for its first big judgment day in the US. The International Trade Commission in Washington is expected to rule this week on whether some phones made by Taiwan’s HTC violate Apple’s patents.The ruling could lead to a ban on some handsets sold by the Taiwanese company, which mainly uses the Android operating system for its smartphones.

Apple has also sued other prominent Android device makers, including Samsung Electronics and Motorola Mobility.

The company claims that many of their smartphones violate features that Apple popularised with its iPhone and iPad tablet computer.

Earlier this year the ITC issued a preliminary ruling that HTC had indeed infringed two of Apple’s patents. One covers technology to detect information in an e-mail, such as a phone number, and then perform an action with it, such as automatically dialling the number when touched.

The preliminary decision was passed on to the full commission, which is expected to make the final decision this week.