Decision in Apple, HTC Patent Case Delayed


News date:

According to reports, the International Trade Commission (ITC) has delayed its ruling on a patent case involving HTC and Apple until Dec. 19.

Though it is one of many patent cases making its way through the courts, this one has garnered particular attention because of its potential impact on HTC's Android business.

This is the second delay in the case this month. The D.C-based ITC was first scheduled to rule on Dec. 6, but that got pushed to today. Now it appears we'll have to wait until Monday for a decision.

Reuters reports that the ITC did not provide a reason for the delay. An ITC spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did HTC.

Patent blogger Florian Mueller, however, encouraged readers "not to read anything into this."

"It doesn't bode well or ill for any party," Mueller wrote in a blog post. "The ITC has a huge workload these days, and this is a case involving four distinct patents."

The HTC-Apple case is particularly complex, he said. In July, an ITC judge found that HTC infringed on two of 10 Apple patents. HTC and Apple both requested reviews in that decision, prolonging the process.

Mueller pointed to a law.com article that said the ITC will likely affirm the July ruling. "I'm not so sure, but Apple is rather likely to win on at least one or two patents," Mueller wrote.

What's the big deal? Mueller mentioned a recent comment from Google's Eric Schmidt, who said that an Apple win in this case "could limit your choice."

"Google is apparently afraid of a ruling that could be broad enough in technical scope that HTC and Google would either not be able to work around it at all or, at the very least, couldn't keep shipping Android without reducing the appeal of HTC's products as a result of technical limitations such as a removal of features or a loss of performance," Mueller wrote. "While I expect both HTC and Google to react to any ITC ruling against Android with an announcement of a workaround, Google's former CEO and now-executive chairman either doesn't believe in the viability of a workaround or at least thinks it comes with a serious toll."

Earlier this month, PCMag mobile analyst Sascha Segan suggested that Microsoft stands to win big if Apple is victorious in the ITC case. For more, see An HTC Android Ban is Microsoft's Dream.

Mueller was skeptical that a settlement would occur, unless HTC can produce patents that Apple really needs, prompting a cross-license situation. "In the absence of that, Apple is going to continue to sue HTC in order to maximize its leverage," he wrote.

In addition to the ITC, Apple and HTC are also battling over patents in several courts throughout the world.

The delay comes several weeks after the ITC ruled that Apple's products don't infringe on patents held by S3 Graphics, a company in the process of being acquired by HTC.



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