Apple handed small victory in suit against HTC and Android.
Apple may have failed in its attempts to secure a preliminary injunction against certain Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab devices, but the company's suit against Samsung is not the only legal battle the Cupertino company is engaged in. Yesterday, after two delays, the International Trade Commission handed Apple a small victory in its ongoing suit against HTC. Apple earlier this year claimed that HTC was infringing on several of its mobile patents with its Android smartphones and the ITC this week ruled in favor of Cupertino with regard to two claims relating to a single patent. The result is an import ban on selected HTC smartphones in the United States.
"Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has found a violation of section 337 in this investigation and has issued a limited exclusion order prohibiting importation of infringing personal data and mobile communications devices and related software," the ITC said in its ruling. "The Commission has determined that exclusion of articles subject to this order shall commence on April 19, 2012."
The patent HTC is guilty of violating relates to a technology the majority of smartphone owners are likely familiar with. Dubbed a "data tapping patent" by FOSS Patents, the patent in question describes a technology that allows users to interact with phone numbers and other types of formatted data in an unstructured document in order to bring up another program. Most of us will recognize an implementation of this technology in the functionality that allows us to tap a phone number in an email or text and immediately bring up the phone's dialer application. The ITC ruling means that any HTC phones with this feature are covered by the import ban.
HTC has until April 19 to comply with the import ban or file an appeal, but the company doesn't seem to bothered by the ITC's decision. The company said in a statement to Boy Genius Report that it plans to remove this 'small UI experience' from its phones soon. The company also highlighted the fact that the ITC had only found it guilty of violating one Apple patent (Apple's initial complaint alleged the violation of many):
"We are gratified that the commission affirmed the judge's determination on the '721 and '983 patents, and reversed its decision on the '263 patent and partially on the '647 patent," HTC told BGR via email. "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."
Google, the company behind the Android operating system, has not yet commented on the news.
Further Reading
FOSS Patents
Honestly, how can these kind of court cases go through? Oh, wait, that's right...lawyers write the law for lawyers and don't have knowledge or regard for science and technology.
You shouldn't be able to write, change, or interpret law in a field unless you have some kind of assurance of understanding of what goes on in that field. Otherwise you end up with SOPA.
Gee, why are they giving patents for any shit like that...it's no technology, it s just first who did it.
We all walk and eat, and no first one to patent it and forbids others to do so....
Honestly, how can these kind of court cases go through? Oh, wait, that's right...lawyers write the law for lawyers and don't have knowledge or regard for science and technology.
You shouldn't be able to write, change, or interpret law in a field unless you have some kind of assurance of understanding of what goes on in that field. Otherwise you end up with SOPA.
Gee, why are they giving patents for any shit like that...it's no technology, it s just first who did it.
We all walk and eat, and no first one to patent it and forbids others to do so....
How ridiculous, I would like to know if they only patent the 'end functionality' like "transmits phone number to alternate application" , OR if they patent a specific method of coding to do so. My guess is the former, which would seem pretty awful.
No offense to gay people. This patent trolling has nothing to do with them. This tech was available for many years, and now Apple thinks they actually invented it. Despicable practice on their part.
The patent was filed in 1996 and granted in '99. I've seen some 'internet experts' stating that there's some prior art concerning this and the patent could be invalidated but I doubt HTC will bother considering it's such a minor feature. Of course, my blackberry has it and I have used it.
Of course, I'm rooted and romed with BAMF Forever, so maybe I can just ask them to put that feature in?
And you've bought how many Apple devices so far?
This is exactly how business has been done for over 100 year. Look at the patent law suits at the beginning of the auto and the airplane. This is the same. Eventually things will settle down.
Instead of the ACCURATE story that Apple only won 1 out of the 4 suits it filed and HTC has already passed using the old android version that the single apple win was filed against, we get this bullshit APPLE WINS AGAINST HTC type headlines. For gods sake, I wish reporters would just, you know, report. Not make shit up that is partially or entirely a false reading of the situation.
Basically, apple spent a shit ton on lawyers and LOST 3 out of the 4 claims against HTC who have essentially won the 4th because they no longer ship any products based on the version of android that apple was whinging about.
Its loose-loose for apple, and yet if you believe the media, apple wiped the floor with HTC!
Sometimes with good reason, i think this defiantly qualifies as one of the times its appropriate. The patent system is flawed and everyone knows it but some rotten companies uses the broken system to stay ahead of the competition their scared of. Rather than invest the resources into the products themselves they try to make sure they don't have to by this shady practices. You defiantly seem to like this abuse of the broken system, lawyer maby?
I actually don't own any apple products. I'm glad, because of douchebaggery like this.
I bought an Apple iPod Classic back in 1997 I believe...Only apple product I have ever or will ever own, I HATED iTunes....Was so crappy that video's on my laptop back then would run at like 5 frames per second, skipping like crazy on iTunes. And when I used media player or Power DVD magically video's ran smooth as silk. This is typical Apple quality, make stuff that runs like shit but looks sweet.
Even as a clear apple fan boy, how can you be happy about a step back in convenience for users? If anything, this puts a nail in the coffin to NOT by Apple for me (and i was considering the iPhone4) because of stupid shit like this.