After seeing its new Android devices blocked at U.S. Customs recently, HTC now has receiveed another blow. The International Trade Commission (ITC) has rejected the company's effort to assert patents it "transferred" from Google in the case against Apple.
The ITC has tossed out five of the patents HTC obtained from Google last summer, after Apple argued HTC did not have the right to file a lawsuit against it, patent blogger Florian Mueller reported on Monday, June 11. "Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender apparently concluded that HTC failed to acquire all substantial rights in the relevant patents," wrote Mueller.
Five Out, Three Left
With the five patents thrown out, HTC is left with only three patents it can assert against Apple at the ITC. "The decision to throw out Google's five patents is appealable, and the identified deficiency is theoretically curable, but it's now fairly probable that Apple won't have to defend itself against those patents in the ongoing ITC action," added Mueller.
Meanwhile, Google can decide to join the complaint alongside HTC, which "could result in further escalation between Apple and Google," said Mueller, noting that such a move could have an impact on a larger scale, affecting other lawsuits that are using the "rent-a-patent" model.
HTC to Appeal the Ruling
"We believe the judge's decision is erroneous as a matter of law and will appeal the ruling to the Commission," said HTC in a statement, as cited by PCMagazine. "We are confident in our ownership of the patents, and that Apple infringes our intellectual property," added the Taiwanese company. "We look forward to presenting our case on the remaining patents to the judge at trial later this year."
The ITC's ruling comes roughly one week after Apple filed its third complaint with the commission against HTC, requesting the watchdog to ban dozens of HTC devices in the United States.
Back in December, the ITC found that HTC smartphones were infringing on Apple's patents, and banned devices with Apple-patented technology from being imported into the U.S. after April 19. HTC has since developed a strategy to avoid issues regarding Apple's patents, but the HTC 4G EVO LTE and the HTC One X were still held up at U.S. Customs, while officials checked to make sure the infringing technology had indeed been removed. Apple. However, Apple was not satisfied with HTC's solution, and filed its third ITC complaint against the Taiwanese company.
