The International Trade Commission issued its ruling this past Monday, finding that HTC technology infringed on two claims in Apple’s iPhone patent. The claims are related to the data tapping feature that marks telephone numbers and email addresses within a document that converts them into actionable links. ITC’s ruling bans HTC phones with this feature from being imported into the U.S. as of April 19, 2012. The ruling contains an exception allowing refurbished phones to be brought in as replacements under warranty or insurance contracts until December 19, 2013.
While the lack of a data tapping feature does put HTC at a competitive disadvantage (unless it find a way to implement the feature without infringing Apple’s patent), this decision is far from the knock-out blow Apple hoped to deliver with its initial complaint asserting ten patents, most of which are operating system patents. Meanwhile, HTC’s CEO has announced that HTC will remove the feature from its phones and implement a non-infringing alternative, adding that the feature was “little used” anyway. So far, HTC refuses to reveal details about the workaround technology.
HTC also has a complaint against Apple pending before the ITC, with final submissions due January 6, 2012. At this stage, the complaint has been already whittled down to one patent dealing with power management; investigation has been terminated as to the other three patents asserted in the complaint.
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