By: The China Post
Category: Patent Infringement
TAIPEI -- HTC Corp. has failed in its first attempt to sue Apple Inc. for patent infringement, after the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled against the Taiwanese smartphone maker.
n the previous ruling on Oct. 17 last year, the ITC said Apple had not infringed on four HTC patents related to portable electronic devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
HTC appealed the ruling on Oct. 31, but the ITC agreed to review only one of the patents in the dispute, U.S. patent No. 6,999,800, a method for power management of a smartphone that experts thought was too weak to use to attack Apple.
On Friday, the ITC rejected HTC's claim, supporting Apple's contention that its products had not infringed the patent in question.
Taoyuan-based HTC expressed regret over the ruling.
“We are disappointed by the Commission's ruling, and look forward to reading the full opinion to understand its reasoning. We'll explore all options, including appeal,” HTC General Counsel Grace Lei said in a statement.
Friday's ruling was the first of three patent infringement cases HTC has lodged against Apple since May 2010, all of which have sought to ban U.S. imports of Apple's mobile devices, which are produced abroad.
HTC, the second largest provider of smartphones and tablet computers running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system, initiated the lawsuits after being sued a number of times by the iPhone maker for patent infringements.
In one patent complaint filed by Apple in March 2010 against HTC, the Taiwanese vendor suffered a setback on Dec. 19 when an ITC panel partially upheld its preliminary findings of a patent violation.
The panel said the world's No. 4 smartphone maker had infringed on one of Apple's four patents related to portable electronic devices, or the “647” patent.
The 647 patent describes a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in a computer,” which is related to the core of Google's open-source Android operating system and is widely used in HTC smartphones.
HTC, however, described the decision as a “win” because the company said the 647 patent is a small user interface experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of its phones soon.
In a separate ruling in a related case, the ITC said on Nov. 22 that Apple's Mac OS X system had not infringed on texture compression patents held by S3 Graphics Co., a subsidiary of HTC.
This forced HTC to review the US$300 million acquisition of the U.S. graphic chipset designer that took place in July 2011.
After back-to-back losses to Apple with Android-powered devices, analysts believed that HTC may turn to other mobile platforms, such as Windows, to diversify risk.
“Android makers require a high level of research and development ability to differentiate their smartphones from others,” Herbert Ho, a Taipei-based analyst at the Topology Research Institute (TRI), told CNA by telephone.
“We think cell phone vendors will not count on the Android system only,” he said. “Given that Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software has an edge in user interface and patent portfolio, we think all cell phone vendors will move a certain amount of research resources to the Windows platform.”
Ho predicted that Windows phones will account for 13-15 percent of the global smartphone market in 2012, more than double last year's 5-6 percent, and suggested that HTC should hedge against risk by making more new products with it.
Joey Yen, a senior International Data Corp. (IDC) analyst, said HTC might not enjoy a good position when it turns to Windows due to the partnership formed between Microsoft and mobile phone vendor Nokia Corp. in early 2011.
“Microsoft is actually supporting Nokia in more ways, including research and development and marketing resources. It has top priority on the list,” she said.
Source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/company-focus/2012/02/19/332053/HTC-loses.htm
Category: Patent Infringement
TAIPEI -- HTC Corp. has failed in its first attempt to sue Apple Inc. for patent infringement, after the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled against the Taiwanese smartphone maker.
n the previous ruling on Oct. 17 last year, the ITC said Apple had not infringed on four HTC patents related to portable electronic devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.
HTC appealed the ruling on Oct. 31, but the ITC agreed to review only one of the patents in the dispute, U.S. patent No. 6,999,800, a method for power management of a smartphone that experts thought was too weak to use to attack Apple.
On Friday, the ITC rejected HTC's claim, supporting Apple's contention that its products had not infringed the patent in question.
Taoyuan-based HTC expressed regret over the ruling.
“We are disappointed by the Commission's ruling, and look forward to reading the full opinion to understand its reasoning. We'll explore all options, including appeal,” HTC General Counsel Grace Lei said in a statement.
Friday's ruling was the first of three patent infringement cases HTC has lodged against Apple since May 2010, all of which have sought to ban U.S. imports of Apple's mobile devices, which are produced abroad.
HTC, the second largest provider of smartphones and tablet computers running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system, initiated the lawsuits after being sued a number of times by the iPhone maker for patent infringements.
In one patent complaint filed by Apple in March 2010 against HTC, the Taiwanese vendor suffered a setback on Dec. 19 when an ITC panel partially upheld its preliminary findings of a patent violation.
The panel said the world's No. 4 smartphone maker had infringed on one of Apple's four patents related to portable electronic devices, or the “647” patent.
The 647 patent describes a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in a computer,” which is related to the core of Google's open-source Android operating system and is widely used in HTC smartphones.
HTC, however, described the decision as a “win” because the company said the 647 patent is a small user interface experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of its phones soon.
In a separate ruling in a related case, the ITC said on Nov. 22 that Apple's Mac OS X system had not infringed on texture compression patents held by S3 Graphics Co., a subsidiary of HTC.
This forced HTC to review the US$300 million acquisition of the U.S. graphic chipset designer that took place in July 2011.
After back-to-back losses to Apple with Android-powered devices, analysts believed that HTC may turn to other mobile platforms, such as Windows, to diversify risk.
“Android makers require a high level of research and development ability to differentiate their smartphones from others,” Herbert Ho, a Taipei-based analyst at the Topology Research Institute (TRI), told CNA by telephone.
“We think cell phone vendors will not count on the Android system only,” he said. “Given that Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software has an edge in user interface and patent portfolio, we think all cell phone vendors will move a certain amount of research resources to the Windows platform.”
Ho predicted that Windows phones will account for 13-15 percent of the global smartphone market in 2012, more than double last year's 5-6 percent, and suggested that HTC should hedge against risk by making more new products with it.
Joey Yen, a senior International Data Corp. (IDC) analyst, said HTC might not enjoy a good position when it turns to Windows due to the partnership formed between Microsoft and mobile phone vendor Nokia Corp. in early 2011.
“Microsoft is actually supporting Nokia in more ways, including research and development and marketing resources. It has top priority on the list,” she said.
Source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/company-focus/2012/02/19/332053/HTC-loses.htm
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