he U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday dismissed the first of a put of complaints HTC leveled against Apple, finding that the Cupertino, Calif., company did not violate a powerfulness management patent owned by the Taiwanese handset maker.
If HTC chooses not to appeal, today’s dismissal could take an conclusion to its cause against Apple that was foremost lodged in May 2010 and has subsequently been whittled down to one out of an original five asserted patents, reports FOSS Patent’s Florian Mueller.
The dismissal echoes an initial October 2011 determination by an Administrative Law Evaluator who felt that no violation received occurred.
Following the initial finding, HTC brought the causa before the ITC for review in December and while the Commission granted an investigation, it would entirely do thence with respect to the power management patent.
Muller believes that HTC’s causa is fundamentally weak, and was almost likely a response to an Apple complaint against the company in March 2010. However, the two companies are still asked in a complicated battle that includes upcoming cases in the U.S. and Germany, and the results of those cases could get far-reaching implications.
In November 2011, the ITC dismissed another complaint against Apple, this time from S3 Graphics.
The complaint was thought to exist motivated by Apple’s suits against HTC’s Android handsets equally S3 Graphics and HTC were in the same family of companies.
The Taiwanese phone maker purchased S3 for $300 million when it appeared the fellowship would succeed its case against Apple, though HTC later rued the decision when the complaint was dismissed.
As for the about recent ITC finding, HTC has the choice of appealing the decision to the Federal Circuit, notwithstanding no announcement of such plans has been made.






