Apple's patent victories that lasted for more than a week received a major halt as The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has declined the company's request for an emergency ban on HTC smartphones and tablet running Google's Android OS.
In early June, the Cupertino tech giant requested to grant a ban on 29 HTC smartphones alleging them for infringing Apple's '647 "data tapping" patent. According to the company, if not banned, HTC phones can cause substantial harm to Apple's market in the US.
But, the latest verdict of ITC reveals that Apple could not produce sufficient evidence necessary to determine the HTC is genuinely violating Apple patent.
"The commission finds that Apple has not demonstrated the propriety of temporary emergency action here," the ITC wrote in its denial of Apple's request. "The commission will not direct Customs to detain all subject HTC products because the commission does not have the information necessary to determine whether the respondents are currently violating the commission's limited exclusion order."
While Apple inevitably not happy about ITC's decision, the Trade Commission has agreed to do an investigation to determine whether the Taiwanese company has indeed flouted the import ban on the 29 devices by giving misleading information to customs officials about redesigning and altering the phone's technology to avoid infringement of Apple's IP.
