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HTC sues to block iPhone, iPad, iPod sales – The China Post

May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

HTC Corp fired back on Wednesday in its legal battle with Apple Inc, asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban sales of iPhones, iPads and iPods in the United States.

In a complaint filed with the ITC and obtained by Reuters, HTC accused Apple of infringing five of its patents related to cellphone directory hardware and software and power-management technology in portable devices.

HTC’s action was widely expected after Apple filed a patent infringement suit against the company in March.

Apple’s move against HTC was seen as a proxy for an attack on Google Inc. Taiwan’s HTC makes smartphones based on Google’s Android software, which has gained ground on Apple’s popular iPhone.

In the complaint dated May 12, HTC said Apple violated patents on technology that helps devices such as the iPhone manage power and handle phone directories, and on technology that enables the just-launched iPad tablet computer to store data when in “sleep” mode, among other applications.

HTC is seeking a ban on importation, marketing and sale of Apple’s popular mobile devices in the United States. Apple, whose products are made in countries such as China, declined comment.

For its part, Apple accused HTC of infringing 20 patents. In addition, Apple filed a complaint with the ITC and also sued HTC in the U.S. District Court in Delaware.

“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, HTC’s vice-president for North America, said in a statement.

via HTC sues to block iPhone, iPad, iPod sales – The China Post.

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HTC Sues Apple, With Help From Troll | The Recorder

May 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

HTC Corp. retaliated against Apple Inc. on Wednesday with its own patent infringement complaint — and the patents come from a surprising source.

Three of the five patents that HTC says Apple is infringing on with its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch were owned by patent troll Saxon Innovations LLC. HTC, the Taiwanese Google-phone maker, appears to have gotten the IP as part of a settlement with Saxon in the spring of 2009. The other two are HTC patents, including one that was issued Tuesday, which helps explain the timing of the complaint.

The countersuit before the International Trade Commission is a response to Apple’s volley of lawsuits against HTC in the ITC and Delaware District Court in March. Apple claims that HTC’s phones, which run Google Inc.’s operating system, infringe on 10 of its patents — sending a forceful message about the growing rivalry between Apple and Google in the smart phone market.

Since the March offensive, there has been a persistent question about how HTC would respond. The company has a much smaller patent portfolio than Apple (hundreds versus thousands), which can be like holding a butter knife at a gun fight.

HTC hired Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner and San Francisco's Keker & Van Nest to defend it against Apple and its lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis.

The lawyers looked at HTC's IP and came up with two patents on controlling the power levels in smart phones — including the one issued Tuesday — that it claims Apple's iPhones infringe on.

The other three patents cover a “Telephone Dialler with a Personalized Page Organization of Telephone Directory Memory.” According to patent filings, Saxon transferred them to HTC on March 31, 2009 — the same day that HTC settled a complaint that Saxon, a patent troll funded by Altitude Capital Partners, had filed in the ITC.

via Law.com – HTC Sues Apple, With Help From Troll.

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T-Mobile Offers $350 Credit Towards HTC HD2 If You Give Up Your iPhone – HotHardware

April 5, 2010 By

How's this for a little friendly competition? Apple’s iPhone has stood strong against the smartphone rivals over the past few years, but HTC and other Android-utilizing brands have begun to seriously catch up. And really, there’s nothing like a little incentive to get an iPhone user to ditch what they’re used to and come to another carrier for another brand (and another operating system, for that matter).

According to internal communications dug up, T-Mobile will be allowing users to actually trade in their existing iPhone as a trade-up to the company’s HTC HD2, an exclusive here in the U.S. The real news is the discount. iPhone users who give up their smartphone (and hand it over to T-Mobile) will get a “up to a $350 credit when purchasing an HD2,” which is largely viewed as the most beautiful touch-screen-based phone available in the States today.

via T-Mobile Offers $350 Credit Towards HTC HD2 If You Give Up Your iPhone – HotHardware.

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Microsoft welcome HTC/Apple patent battle – SlashGear

March 15, 2010 By

With several Windows Mobile devices named in Apple’s patent suit against HTC, you’d be forgiven for expecting Microsoft to have a few words of quiet support for their hardware partners.  However it seems Microsoft are quite looking forward to a general battle; speaking at an IP convention last week, Brad Smith, the company’s general counsel and senior vice president told amassed lawyers that ”the fact that there’s litigation in this area is not necessarily a bad thing.”

It seems Microsoft are viewing the ongoing litigation as an opportunity to finally settle the pesky question of who owns what multitouch IP, and what other companies are allowed to do with the multi-finger technologies.  To Smith’s mind, “the question of the day is, how will patent licensing work for the software and other information-technology layers that actually make up an increasingly large percentage of the value of a smartphone”; he went on to suggest that 5-10 percent of a smartphone’s cost could be royalty fees for these technologies within the next 3-5 years.

Smith saved some scorn for Google’s copyright settlements over book publishing, describing them as “not the way litigation is supposed to work.”  In fact after the event, when asked whether Microsoft would get more involved with HTC’s case, he seemed to obliquely critique the search giant’s quickness to speak up in the handset manufacturer’s favor.  ”I think it’s premature to endorse or offer any other reaction to it” he told reporters.

via Microsoft welcome HTC/Apple patent battle – SlashGear.

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