Mac OS X violates patents held by S3 Graphics, while the platform for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad tablet doesn’t, the U.S. International Trade Commission said in a July 1 ruling made public Tuesday — as reported by “Bloomberg” (http://macte.ch/qeuac).
The operating system on the Mac infringes two S3 patents related to graphics chips, Judge James Gildea said. S3 Graphics makes image compression technology. If Gildea’s decision is upheld in a review by the full six-member commission, the ITC can ban U.S. imports of some Macs.
Macs that have Nvidia graphics processing units have an implied license to the patents, the judge said. Gildea found that two other S3 patents were invalid, as were aspects of the two patents found to be infringed, notes “Bloomberg.”
The iPhone and iPad are no longer under threat of a ban from the S3 case. The two devices accounted for about 46 percent of Apple’s revenue last fiscal year, according to data compiled by “Bloomberg.”