0370 270 6000

already registered?

Please sign in with your existing account details.

Sign in with LinkedIn

need to register?

Register to access exclusive content, sign up to receive our updates and personalise your experience on brownejacobson.com.

Privacy statement - Terms and conditions

Register with LinkedIn

Forgotten your password?

Home arrow Insights arrow Resources arrow Blogs arrow Apple victory over HTC in smartphone patent battle

Apple victory over HTC in smartphone patent battle

21 December 2011

After a lengthy legal dispute, the International Trade Commission (a US trade panel that investigates patent infringement involving imported goods) has ruled that HTC phones infringe one Apple patent.

HTC will by 19 April 2012 remove from all their devices the infringing feature, which enables the user to convert embedded data (such as a phone number) into a hyperlink.

The ITC embarked on their initial investigation in April 2010 after Apple complained that HTC infringed ten patents, which could have led to a ban of all HTC devices in the US market. Apple later dropped six patents and an ITC judge ruled that HTC had infringed two of the remaining four patents. This overdue final ITC decision, which follows a request for a review of their previous ruling from both companies, has been welcomed by the Taiwanese mobile phone-maker.

This result will be of interest to those following the patent disputes that Apple are embroiled in relating to Android technology, most notably with South Korean rival Samsung.

Related opinions

Flexible working, childcare and indirect sex discrimination – important reminder

The courts have long recognised that, on a societal level, women bear a greater burden of childcare responsibilities than men which can make it more difficult for women to comply with employer requirements for flexible working (known as the ‘childcare disparity’).

View blog

Important opportunity to comment on case law precedent

The UK government is considering extending this power to depart from retained EU case law to additional lower courts and tribunals, namely the Court of Appeal in England and Wales and the High Court of Justice in England and Wales and their equivalents.

View blog

Sky’s overly broad trade marks narrowed as found partially invalid for bad faith

Lord Justice Arnold has applied the guidance of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to the evidence before him, in the long standing trade mark dispute between Sky and Skykick.

View blog

Supreme Court awards compensation to a Professor for an invention created during his employment

A recent decision by the Supreme Court in Shanks v Unilever PLC has supported the right for employees to receive compensation for patented inventions if the invention is of ‘outstanding benefit’.

View blog

View all blogs

Mailing list sign up

Select which mailings you would like to receive from us.

Sign up

Quick links

Information

  1. bab
  2. Investors in people
  3. Lexcel
  5. Plain English Campaign Approved

Follow us...

© Copyright Browne Jacobson LLP 2021 - All rights reserved