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]