HTC Sues Apple

By  |  Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 11:47 am

This isn’t even slightly surprising: HTC is suing Apple. The Taiwanese phone giant says that the iPhone maker has violated five HTC patents, and it’s therefore asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to prevent the iPhone, iPad, and iPod from being imported into the U.S. and sold.

Last month, Apple sued HTC, seeking to ban that company from selling phones in the U.S. Apple is also suing Nokia, which is itself suing Apple. Twice.

(Extremely unlikely but perversely satisfying potential scenario: All three companies win all their lawsuits, preventing all of them from selling any products whatsoever and driving them all out of business. At least it might dissuade other businesses from doing battle in the courtroom rather than the marketplace…)

Microsoft, meanwhile, isn’t suing HTC–it’s collecting royalties whenever HTC sells an Android phone.  But the unspoken message of its pact with HTC appears to be “Strike a similar deal with us, makers of Android phones, or we might sue you.”

HTC doesn’t seem to have disclosed which patents it thinks Apple is violating, but its portfolio includes hundreds of ones relating to mobile gadgets. Just for fun, here’s a drawing from one HTC patent that probably isn’t involved–the clever one covering the phone that became the AT&T Tilt. (Come to think of it, I’d be interested in buying an iPhone based on this patent–too bad Apple never violated it…)

 
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4 Comments For This Post

  1. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    May 12th, 2010 at 11:36 pm

    Saying companies should stay put of court is unrealistic. Why not suggest they shoot each other? There are referees in football. You’re saying, “if somebody cheats, don’t use the referees, just keep playing.”

    Nokia wanted Apple to pay 3x what it charges RIM for 3G patents, and Nokia wanted Apple to license all iPhone IP to Nokia so they could simply copy iPhone. If Apple pays 3x RIM plus free iPhone plans, then the marketplace is not fair. You can’t work that out on the marketplace. The 3G patents are supposed to be licenced the same to all. When Apple said no to this shakedown, Nokia sued them and Apple countersued.

    HTC has no inventors, no product designers. They’re a cloner. They copied iPhone hardware, and used Google software that was also copied from iPhone. We learn in Kindergarten not to copy other people’s work. It’s basic.

  2. Max Says:
    May 13th, 2010 at 1:29 am

    “Extremely unlikely but perversely satisfying potential scenario: All three companies win all their lawsuits, preventing all of them from selling any products whatsoever and driving them all out of business”

    We can only dream for such a reasonable and ideal outcome, nicely put. 🙂

  3. John Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 4:23 pm

    I never liked Apple, never will. I dont get the ipad. I own the touch pro 2 and it kicks but over the iPhone. My iPhone user friends and family have all but said I am right. All my wifes family own iPhones. We both own Touch Pro 2’s and now they all understand why. Friends at work who went to iPhone see my Touch Pro 2 and wish they had one. It does have less APPS but the reality is that about 90% of them are dumb or usless. I don’t want to put all that Crap in my phone.

  4. sheriff8287 Says:
    June 13th, 2010 at 7:13 am

    REALY… HTC coppied the iphone? Then why is it that ATT had the HTC 8125 may 1 2006, for sale almost a year before the iphone jun 3 2007. HTC also uses a slide out key board on many of its devices, so what part of the iphone was that copied off of? I know what part that is… its is the part that iphone owners envy. I wish I had more time here but I am busy loading up a bunch of movies and songs on to my micro sd card for my HTC phone but you would not understand that.