HTC are in Violation of Apple patents say ITC

Earlier this week news broke that Apple were suing HTC again over alleged patent infringements. Apple approached the US International Trade Commission complaining that a number of HTC’s phones, including the EVO 4G and HTC Flyer used technology for which Apple owned the patent.

The gears turn quickly at the ITC it would seem as they have already ruled in favour of Apple. A judges initial determinations was that HTC are indeed infringing upon two of the ten patents that Apple filed a claim over. The ITC must now make a final ruling on the complaint but if they rule again in favour of Apple this could lead to a number of HTC’s handsets being banned from sale in the US.

HTC have already said they would appeal against the decision:

HTC will vigorously fight these two remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC commissioners who make the final decision," said Grace Lei, general counsel for HTC. "This is only one step of many in these legal proceedings.

If Apple are successful in this case it could have much further reaching consequences for manufacturers that use Android on their devices and indeed for the platform as a whole.

One of the complaints deals with the “ability to scroll, zoom, and rotate content on a screen, while the last references "portable computers."

We’ll watch this one closely!