ITC to review HTC, Apple ruling

The International Trade Commission said Thursday it will review a court decision that found HTC violated two Apple patents. The ITC ruling, revealed in a posting to the commission’s Web site and first reported by Bloomberg.

Apple won a preliminary ruling against HTC in July, and if the commission upholds that decision, it could have the potential of banning imports and sale of HTC products that are found to violate Apple patents.

In his analysis of the situation, patent expert and FOSS Patents blogger Florian Mueller said that Apple has a slight upper hand in the review, which he said is normal for these kinds of cases.




“It’s not a particular setback for Apple that this review should happen, but there’s a substantial risk of a narrower win, while an improvement in Apple’s favor is a long shot,” he wrote.

As for the future of HTC and Android, Mueller said that this case is just the start of a “marathon, not a sprint” in patent litigation between Apple and HTC, which are far from the only smartphone makers locked in legal combat at the moment.