HTC loses the smartphone patent battle to Apple

Taiwanese mobile-phone maker HTC has lost the US patent battle with Apple. The International Trade Commission claimed that HTC has infringed one of the four patents held by Apple.
All HTC phones that use the technology covered by the patent will be banned from sale in the US from 19 April, 2012.
Apple had initially claimed that HTC was ignoring 10 patents. HTC, therefore, called the ruling “a win” as it impacted only one patent, rather than the 10.
“We see a very minimal impact of this as there could be a workaround for the same technology that HTC can implement in the next four months. It’s a sigh of relief for HTC because they had to give in to only one feature,” says Jayesh Easwaramony from Frost & Sullivan.
The patent over which the ban is being imposed is related to a small user-interface feature called “data tapping”, that allows users to grab embedded information, such as a phone number, and do something with it, like make a call.
The company stated that it would completely remove the feature from all of its phones. The removal, according to analysts, should allow HTC to avoid any further disruption to its business in the US.
HTC is the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker. HTC devices run on Google’s Android operating system. Although Apple is the market leader for smartphones in the US, Android devices are gaining huge popularity worldwide.