Phone Wars Heat Up As Holiday Season Approaches
For over a year now, Apple has been engaged in an all-out legal war with its Android competitors. According to Apple, most Android phones have taken numerous features stolen from the iPhone, an act that amounts to patent infringement and should be cause for these competitors to have their products banned. The company has filed lawsuits based on these allegations in courts and agencies around the world. It has battled Samsung in European, Asia, and – most recently – American courtrooms, where judged have repeatedly ruled that Samsung’s products were not illegally stolen. They have, however, forced Samsung to change certain features on its phones in order to avoid court injunctions. The most recent chapter in the battle was decided this past week, when a judge in San Francisco refused to block the sale of the Samsung Galaxy II in the United States.
Although Apple has failed thus far to truly harm its competitors through litigation, that may change this week with a ruling expected from the International Trade Commission (ITC) regarding four alleged patent infringements in HTC phones. Taiwan-based HTC is one of the world’s strongest and fastest-growing smartphone manufactures, with $5 billion in sales in the U.S. in the past year. But Apple claims that this success is based largely on stolen ideas. Specifically, the company believes that HTC has infringed on four Apple patents. While the average smartphone uses thousands of patents, Apple’s claims may severely curtail HTC sales if affirmed in a court of law.
The ITC has been reviewing the Apple-HTC case since the spring. Initially, a staff ruling found that Apple’s patents were not violated by HTC. An agency judge then rejected that position, ruling that two of those patents – one for telephone number detection and another for data transmission – had indeed been infringed upon. A commission is expected to announce the ITC’s final verdict this week.
The ITC is charged with both upholding patent laws and protecting the public interest. While the Smoot-Hawley Tariff allows the agency to fully and immediately ban HTC imports – effectively removing millions of phones from the shelf just before the holiday season – it is more likely that such a measure will not be taken, at least as far as HTC’s 4G phones are concerned. HTC comprises over half of the American market for 4G phones, meaning that the public interest would likely be curtailed if half of these devices were no longer available.
Regardless of the verdict, the ruling stands to have a considerable impact on Apple’s and HTC’s holiday season. It is expected to come later this week, and a ban could theoretically be immediately instituted. Stay tuned.
