[JURIST] Apple [corporate website; Bloomberg backgrounder] prevailed in a complaint [JURIST report] against HTC [corporate website; Bloomberg backgrounder] on Saturday when the US International Trade Commission (USITC) [official website] ruled against HTC for patent infringement on patents 5,946,647 and 6,343,263 [texts], both of which relate to cell phones that run the Android operating system (OS). HTC will appeal [Bloomberg report] the ruling. If the ruling stands, the United States will likely block several HTC phones that carry Android, which is Google’s [corporate website; Bloomberg backgrounder] representative in the smartphone market and the most popular smartphone OS in the US. Regardless of whether the appeal goes in favor of HTC, general counsel Grace Lei said they have alternate tools and methods [Bloomberg report] to circumvent the patent infringement. Some have theorized this will involve paying a licensing fee [Taipei report] or settling with Apple, thus raising the prices of Android-based phones.

This is the second suit that Apple has brought against HTC. Last year, Apple filed suits [JURIST report] in the US District Court for the District of Delaware and with the USITC alleging patent infringements. HTC later also filed a suit [JURIST report] against Apple for infringement related to portable electronic devices. Apple’s claim comes days after it filed a complaint against Samsung [JURIST report] in an effort to bar importation of Samsung’s smartphones and tablets. Apple claimed Samsung’s “Galaxy” line copies its iPhone and iPad technology. That complaint came just a week after Samsung filed a similar complaint [JURIST report] seeking to prevent Apple from importing iPads and iPhones. Samsung claimed that Apple violated five patents also related to smartphones and tablets. In addition, Samsung filed a patent infringement suit [Bloomberg report] against Apple in the High Court in London two weeks ago.