Judge Rules: HTC Infringed On 2 Of Apple’s Patents

The patent battle between HTC and Apple that had been so quiet for so long has really heated up in the past few weeks. Apple filed yet another ITC complaint against HTC just last week, and this week a judge has ruled that two of the ten proposed patents Apple presented in its case were infringed upon by HTC.
Despite HTC’s dismay over the filing, share prices began falling after Apple filed its second complaint on July 8, spurring a 15 percent decrease. Share prices fell 4.1 percent after the infringement ruling this weekend. But HTC hasn’t thrown in the towel. The company plans to stage a share buy-back for September to bring what Macquarie Group analyst Daniel Chang calls “near-term support.” In the mean time, HTC has an appeal planned for July 16.
If you’re unfamiliar with the ITC import ban process (which you likely should be), it goes a little something like this: Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski decided on July 15 that HTC was in violation of certain Apple patents. From there, Charneski’s ruling goes before the International Trade Commission’s six-person board in Washington, where HTC will launch an appeal. At that point, it’s in the hands of the commission, which could decide to ban U.S. imports of some HTC phones running the Android OS.

[via Bloomberg]

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Eric Schmidt On The HTC-Apple Brawl: “I’m Not Too Worried About This”

It’s looking like big brother Google is stepping in to help out HTC in its current patent battle with Apple. At a Google mobile conference in Tokyo, executive chariman Eric Schmidt seemed confident that HTC would somehow pull out a win against Apple, despite the fact that a judge approved Apple’s ITC import ban request.
“We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations,” said Schmidt. “I’m not too worried about this.”
Judge Carl Charneski’s decision that HTC is in violation of Apple patents has some widespread consequences for Android phones in general. By extension, any Android phones with the same technology described in those two patents are vulnerable to an attack from Apple.
Schmidt wasn’t altogether clear about how exactly Google plans to aid HTC, reports ZDNet Asia. Schmidt was asked how Google would respond should the Taiwanese phone maker lose this battle, namely whether or not Google would provide financial support to a defeated HTC. Schmidt responded by saying, “we will make sure they don’t lose, then.”

[via CNET]

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Anynod’s Smart Cover Clone Pulled From Samsung Stores

Anynod’s Smart Case hit the interwebs yesterday and caused more than a few people to call for Samsung’s head. Why? Well, Samsung retail stores throughout Korea where selling the blatant rip-off of Apple’s Smart Cover. But while Samsung was facilitating the case, it was actually made and distributed by Anynod. It doesn’t matter anymore. Samsung did the right thing and has pulled the case from its stores stating it wasn’t approved nor received the official “Designed for Samsung Mobile” certification.

Samsung’s statement via its Samsung Tomorrow Blog

As a general practice, Samsung Electronics reviews and approves all accessories produced by partners before they are given the “Designed for Samsung Mobile” mark.

In this case, approval was not given to Anymode for the accessory to feature this official designation.  We are working with Anymode to address this oversight and the product has already been removed from the Anymode sales website.  The product has not been sold.

This case caused an absurd amount of outrage. It’s just a tablet case. There wasn’t nearly the same amount of outcry when Apple debuted the Smart Cover. You know, the blatant rip-off of the InCase Convertible Magazine Jacket.

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