HTC face the real prospect of their highly popular Android phones being banned in the USA, after the International Trade Commission declared that HTC had infringed on two of ten Apple patents.
The complaint filed in March 2010, is now subject to a final ruling, HTC declared a short while ago that they will appeal the interim ruling.
Apple who only needs to get a favourable ruling on one of the patents now has the upper hand against a Company that is stripping market share away from the iPhone.
“HTC will vigorously fight these two remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC commissioners who make the final decision,” said Grace Lei, general counsel for HTC. “This is only one step of many in these legal proceedings.”
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours”.
All Things D claims the two patents in question are 5,946,647 and 6,343,263, the former is said to be critical to Android functionality.
This is the same patent that Apple is contending Motorola has breached in a separate patent claim.
If an appeal isn’t successful, HTC will have to come to a settlement with Apple claims observers.
The patents relate to a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in a computer” and a “real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data.”
FOSS patents, meanwhile, said the patents in dispute make up the core of Android’s operating system, and could have repercussions on all Android handset manufacturers.
The loss could be a blow to all manufacturers of Android Smartphones.
