Apple Wins ITC case against HTC on Android Patents

listermint

http://gizmodo.com/5869507/htc-android-phones-are-being-banned-from-the-us-next-year

HTC Android Phones Are Being Banned from the US Next Year
Whoa. Apple just won a big court victory against HTC that could force HTC to stop selling its Android phones in the United States. The United States International Trade Commission ruled that HTC was infringing on an Apple patent that effects HTC Android devices running Android 1.6 to 2.2.

The devices that may be banned from being sold in the US is basically a who's who list of Android phones: Droid Incredible, Evo 4G, T-Mobile G2, Nexus One and a bunch of older Android devices. The patent that the courts ruled HTC was infringing on (#5,946,647) is potentially a big one. According to Fortune, who took a deep look at the specific patent, it works like this:

When an iPhone receives a message that contains a phone number or an address — e-mail, Web or street — those bits of data are automatically highlighted, underlined and turned into clickable links.

Click on the phone number, and the iPhone asks if you want to dial it. Click on the Web address, and it opens in Safari. Click on the street address, and Maps will display it.

That's huge, not only because it's an important feature in smartphones but because it could mean Apple could go on to attack other Android phone makers because it's the OS that's infringing the patent, not the hardware. However, if HTC Android phones removed that feature (unlikely) or implement it in a different way (which we expect HTC to do), they could keep on selling. And that's pretty much what HTC expects to do, HTC, which has responded to this decision with rainbow colored unicorn tears, reached out to us with this statement:

This decision is a win for HTC and 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. 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.

Yes, the patent in question is a fixable problem but I'd hardly categorize the court's decision as a win for HTC. If HTC doesn't fix this issue however, the ban on HTC Android phones in the US is set to take into effect on April 19, 2012. That's not winning.

There are still some real moves left for HTC to make to avoid the import ban (a Presidential veto is an option) but this is sure setting up for a major stateside war (thermonuclear, even) between Apple and Android phone makers much like with what's happening with Apple and Samsung Tablets in Europe and Australia

Atomic Pineapple

Article written by an Apple fanboy? Comes across that way anyway, a small UI change would definitely be a win for HTC in an American patent case.

listermint

draffodx wrote: »

Article written by an Apple fanboy? Comes across that way anyway, a small UI change would definitely be a win for HTC in an American patent case.

Its Gizmodo, expect no less...

however it still puts an immediate halt on their imports to the US market. which considering the period of year isnt the best for them.

Atomic Pineapple

listermint wrote: »

Its Gizmodo, expect no less...

however it still puts an immediate halt on their imports to the US market. which considering the period of year isnt the best for them.

I'm guessing they anticipated that and have enough units within the states to cover the xmas period

BionicRasher

draffodx wrote: »

Article written by an Apple fanboy? Comes across that way anyway,

Exactly why I have stopped reading Gizmodo - they have some serious Apple fanboys on their books. for a more rounded look at things I recommend tomshardware.com

has this function not been part of Symbian for years now? Will Apple try to ban underlined hyperlinks on my PC next? they are really playing silly buggers now and have started to resort to 'sue the ass off you if you have some innovation we think we invented'

BionicRasher

listermint wrote: »

however it still puts an immediate halt on their imports to the US market. which considering the period of year isnt the best for them.

the ban on HTC Android phones in the US is set to take into effect on April 19, 2012.

robinph

tui0hcg wrote: »

Exactly why I have stopped reading Gizmodo - they have some serious Apple fanboys on their books. for a more rounded look at things I recommend tomshardware.com

has this function not been part of Symbian for years now? Will Apple try to ban underlined hyperlinks on my PC next? they are really playing silly buggers now and have started to resort to 'sue the ass off you if you have some innovation we think we invented'

BT owned the patent for hyperlinks:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/798475.stm

Although that got thrown out when they eventually got round to realising that the internet existed and tried to make a case out of it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16243414

I think the judge in that hyperlink case had a moment of clarity and basically told them all to stop playing silly buggers.

god's toy

Funny I don't remember seeing a Apple lose case against Motorola in oz thread here. (open to correction on that) I really hope people don't only post junk to start flaming here...

Inquitus

It only applies to 1.6 to 2.2 versions of Android, can't be many if any of those still on sale. It's kinda a moot point and has no real world effect on anything?

Kinda like Ireland in 2011 banning Fords that run on leaded petrol or the like.

justsomebloke

surely HTC just have to upgrade any phones still being sold to 2.3? Will there even be that many 2.2 phones being sold come April?

thirtythirty

draffodx wrote: »

Article written by an Apple fanboy? Comes across that way anyway, a small UI change would definitely be a win for HTC in an American patent case.

Casey Chan is an uber fanboy. Pretty much uses his phone as an ivagina.

What the article doesn't say is that they lost 9 of the 10 against HTC, and this is a very easy software workaround, for an OS version that is purely on older phones.

Ruling doesn't mean much tbh

Mr E

One for the fanboy conspiracy theorists. Lots of comments on that gizmodo article about it being a non-event, but the top rated comments seem to be a dispute about the author using affects vs. effects. Yeah right.

listermint

god's toy wrote: »

Funny I don't remember seeing a Apple lose case against Motorola in oz thread here. (open to correction on that) I really hope people don't only post junk to start flaming here...

Junk? I posted it because i thought it was relevant. Apologies if your opinion differs, but i really couldnt care less.

It is Android related after all and the case specifically requires OS changes to devices and is no way related to the what i presume you meant was the SAMSUNG galaxy tab case in Australia which highlighted issues with the hardware look and feel and packaging.

killbillvol2

Inquitus wrote: »

It only applies to 1.6 to 2.2 versions of Android, can't be many if any of those still on sale. It's kinda a moot point and has no real world effect on anything?

Kinda like Ireland in 2011 banning Fords that run on leaded petrol or the like.

AFAIK HTC have already changed this and are unlikely to be selling any phones in the US running Froyo or below next March.

Android Police

cgarrad

They (apple) lost all the hardware cases and won a software case which can be easily worked around.

Actually a loss for Apple but reported otherwise.

The real problem is the granting of a PATENT on clicking a number in a message to make a call.

How is anybody supposed to create products when basic functionality is restricted like this?

Nolimits

justsomebloke wrote: »

surely HTC just have to upgrade any phones still being sold to 2.3? Will there even be that many 2.2 phones being sold come April?

Probably because when the case started gingerbread wasn't yet out, so it only specifically mentioned 2.2