Apple Inc. has won a close battle against Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. in their battle for smartphone patents after the United States International Trade Commission (US ITC) found that HTC has infringed one of the patents of Apple.
The ITC ruled that HTC violated an Apple patent for a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer generated data.” The patent is for when a user taps a phone number located in an email to make a call.
Even though the ruling of the ITC is in favor of Apple, the Taiwanese smartphone company described the decision as a victory for them.
“Since the infringing elements identified by the ITC involve and impact only a very minimal part of the user interface, we will remove it as soon as possible and sell non-infringing products,” HTC said in a statement.
The US ITC said that HTC has until April 19, 2012 to comply with its ruling, and its smartphones will be banned from importation to the country.
The ITC’s ruling is the latest in a number of patent issues between Apple and manufacturers of Android-powered handsets. Apple is also in a legal war against Samsung in Europe, the US and Australia over its Galaxy smartphones and tablets.
Apple has accused HTC of infringing 10 of its patents. Six of these patents were dropped from the case.
via: Venture Beat
