The US ITC has ruled that Apple won the initial patent victory over HTC as HTC has infringed on 2 of 10 patents in this investigation. The final Commission decision on this investigation will be stated on December 6, 2011 and in the worst case, it could lead to the import ban of all HTC Android devices in the US.
The two infringing patents seems to be at the core of Android, so many other companies’ Android devices could be infringing. Here are the 2 patents:
- “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data” (like the recognition of “phone numbers, post-office addresses and dates” and the ability to perform “related actions with that data”; one example is that “the system may receive data that includes a phone number, highlight it for a user, and then, in response to a user’s interaction with the highlighted text, offer the user the choice of making a phone call to the number”)
- “real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data” (Apple said that this patent “relates generally to providing programming abstraction layers for real-time processing applications”)
The number of Android devices being activated each day is now over 550,000 and if Apple could win the patent lawsuit, the Android’s increasingly success would face many difficulties. What do you think about the way Apple is defeating its competitors?
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TnTonly says
WTF? These kind of things existed long before iPhone was ever born. When did Apple registered these patents? Find smt ppl still haven’t registered and make them theirs, is that how Apple plays?
ricky says
Yeah you are right, these patents were registered nearly 10 years before the iPhone was born. That’s the rule and HTC is violating it. Apple has just filed another lawsuit including 5 more patents HTC is using. It appears that Apple wants to beat Android phones to hell.
Trisi says
I absolutely love my HTC evo. It would really suck to loose it. If we lost the Android os, how many people would be hurt? All of those app. developers comes to mind. Apple’s playing hard ball for sure but to what end?
ricky says
I can’t imagine how the smartphone market will be without Android phones. There will be iPhone everywhere and Apple has no competitors. Apple should have better concentrated on releasing new phones than legal strategies like this.
Sure says
I own two Iphones but as a technologist I will not be buying another. In particular I find this patent ■“real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data” to be comical. There is nothing new here, UARTS and AT commands in all operating systems, indeed even serial mice in 1992 and PS2 keyboard drivers could be covered under this. I find apples marketing offensive and the sigma of being an image conscious brand moron is not one that appeals to me when people see the apple logo on the phone I am using…..