HTC, the Taiwan-based smartphone manufacturer doing battle with Apple over patents disputes, has sued Apple in the UK. The complaint, filed July 29 in London, comes two weeks after HTC lost a ruling against Apple at the U.S. International Trade Commission. Notice of the U.K. case didn’t specify the nature of the new lawsuit, notes “Bloomberg” (http://macte.ch/dvUUS).
The Washington-based ITC ruled on July 15 that HTC’s Android-based mobile phones infringe two Apple patents, a judgment that HTC has said it will appeal.
However, last month HTC said it was willing to negotiate with Apple after both sides scored victories at the U.S. International Trade Commission. On July 6 HTC announced an US$300 million deal to buy S3 Graphics, less than a week after that company won an ITC ruling against Apple over two patents. In a July 15 initial determination, the same commission ruled in Apple’s favor on two other patents.
Regarding the latter, the US trade commission said that HTC was guilty of violating two Apple patents when it produced mobile phones based on the Android operating system. Apple had filed a complaint against HTC for infringing ten of their patents.
— Dennis Sellers
