In The International Trade Commission (ITC) has announced that it would review the patent litigation put forward against HTC by Apple Inc. The ITC has the power to block imports and hence this new ruling must come as a respite for HTC. The decision to review the order comes in wake of an initial order by a single judge bench in July that HTC had violated two of 10 patents Apple had accused HTC of infringing in a complaint filed in March 2010.
If HTC loses the case after the review, then many of its popular devices could become unavailable in USA. Of all the Android partners, HTC is considered to be the most vulnerable legally because it lacks a robust portfolio of patents that act as a potential shield. Earlier this month, HTC purchased S3 Graphics, largely because this company owns a collection of patents that the ITC administrative law judge recently determined were used illegally by Apple.
HTC denies any wrongdoings and the company is gearing for a fight in the court. Besides, the company also decided to place its own patent litigation against Apple. In this, HTC is following a strategy similar to the one that has been used by Samsung. Samsung too has answered Apples lawsuits with counter lawsuits of its own. In March, this year, HTC had released its first tablet Flyer, which uses Android and has a 7-inch screen. This tablet and other HTC products including the Droid Incredible, Wildfire, EVO 4G and Desire have been targeted in Apples lawsuit.
Grace Lei, general counsel at HTC, said, HTC respects intellectual property and will continue to protect and defend its protected innovations. We will fully cooperate with the ITCs investigation and look forward to showing that we are not in violation of any of Apples patents.
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