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Legal
Apple rival wants iPhones banned in the USA
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 14 May 2010
Our favourite litigation of the week, this: Taiwanese mobile handset maker HTC has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission requesting that Apple be banned from selling iPhones, iPads and iPods in the American market. I think it’s what might be called an “optimistic” claim.
This is HTC bouncing back after Apple hit it with a patent infringement claim back in March, just the latest in a long line of patent squabbles relating to so called smart phones; Apple and Nokia have been particularly proactive in suing each other over handset patents.
When Apple sued HTC, who, they allege, have infringed no less than 20 of their iPhone patents, top man Steve Jobs told reporters: “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours”.
According to documents seen by Reuters, HTC are now accusing Apple of infringing five of their patents. Among the allegedly infringed patents are bits of technology which enable the iPhone to manage power supply and phone directories, and another that enables the iPad to store data when in the sleep mode. If HTC had their way, which they won’t, they’d stop Apple from importing their devices from China where they are made.
HTC US VP Jason Mackenzie said this: “We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly, our customers that use HTC phones”.
