The International Trade Commission ruled yesterday that HTC handsets are indeed infrongign on Apple’s  patent (#5,946,647) and has imposed a ban on HTC’s infringing handset which goes into effect on April 19, 2012. While the original patent dispute brought forth by Apple names phones like the HTC EVO 4G, HTC DROID Incredible, T-Mobile G2 and [...]

Martin Fichter, president of HTC America took the stage yesterday in Seattle at the Mobile Future Forward conference to share his ideas on the future of the mobile industry.   Some of the topics that Fichter touched on included Google’s plans to buy Motorola, the ongoing patent disputed between HTC, Apple, and other manufacturers, the state [...]

While we wish HTC and other manufacturers would simply focus on making the best phones on the market, the reality of the mobile industry is that millions of dollars are being pulled away from research and development each year to support massive armies of lawyers to battle things out on with on the patent battlefront.  [...]

Apparentlym HTC isn’t simply going to lay back and take a beating from Apple on this whole pattent infringement issue. HTC has fired back with their own lawsuite againg Apple, alleging that they are infringing on five of HTC’s patents with the production and sales of the iPhone.

“We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones.” – Jason Mackenzie, nice president of HTC North America.

HTC’s claims have been files with the united States International Trade Commission, asking that sales of the iPhone, iPad, and even the iPod be banned in the United States. To our knowledge, this is the first time that HTC has files a patent claim against any other manufacturer. HTC has typically laid low, allowing all the big boys to pony up the big cash for the huge legal staff needed to support patent infringement cases. But with HTC’s continued growth and success, their entry into this new arena was inevitable. With both companies claiming patent infringements against one another, expect this battle to play out over the next few years with an eventual settlement.

Source: Gizmodo