HTC Sues Apple for Patent Infringment

The world was surprised when Apple filed suit against HTC for patent infringement in regards to their Android based devices. HTC has vowed to fight Apple on that lawsuit. Today, HTC has launched a lawsuit against Apple for infringing on 5 of their patents. While the press released on HTC’s website makes no mention of the patents in question. It does say that they have been innovating in the mobile space for more than a decade, but there is no reference to how this relates to Apple’s products or their own patents. HTC is asking to halt the import and sale of iPhone, iPod, and iPad products.

The mobile space is getting to be a nasty place! Apple sues HTC, Nokia sues Apple, HTC sues Apple – where will this end? You can read the press release after the jump. Also, check out HTC’s A Quietly Brilliant Story, which shows all of the firsts that they have been involved with over the years.

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Nokia Files Patent Suite Against Apple, Again

On Friday, Nokia filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple Inc in regards to the iPhone and iPad products. This is the 5th complaint between Nokia and Apple over the course of the last year. Nokia claims that Apple has infringed on 10 different patents and is demanding royalties be paid on the more than 51 million iPhonas / iPads that have been sold to date.

There’s been a lot of focus on patents lately and it’s likely that this will only get worse as key players continue to battle for dominance in what will be the new computing frontier. Apple filed against HTC, HTC licensed a number of Microsoft patents, and HP buys Palm partly to gain control of Palm’s patents. Industry analysts are predicting that worldwide shipments of converged mobile devices (smartphones) will exceed 390 million by 2013. Because of that, all of the major players are working to position themselves in an attempt to control the lion share of the mobile market. Controlling the operating system used on those devices, or being the hardware manufacturer that produces the majority share of those 390 million devices will not only mean incredible revenues, but also a significant amount of power over the mobile industry – in much the same way Microsoft did with the PC many years ago.

So how does Nokia’s actions effect mobile users today? It doesn’t. This issue is before the court and will take years to resolve, and when it is resolved, most likely the court will order one company to pay the other company and maybe stop selling the devices. But that won’t effect those people that already have a device. So continue to enjoy your phone or buy that new one you’ve been looking at and don’t let all the patent fuss get in your way.

HTC Responds to Apple’s Patent Lawsuit

In case you’re not already aware; Apple is claiming that HTC has violated a number of intellectual patents during the implementation of Google’s Android on their hardware. The patents in dispute include things like touch-screen finger gestures to unlock a mobile device and dynamically changing the voltage supplied to a processor to achieve better power/battery performance. For a complete list and breakdown of each patent, check out the following engadget post.

Now, HTC has responded to Apple’s claims stating that they disagree and will fully defend themselves. HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou comments “HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible”.

The press release highlights a number awards and firsts that HTC has achieved – First Windows PDA (1998), First Windows Phone (June 2002), First 3G CDMA EVDO Smartphone (October 2005), First gesture based smartphone (June 2007), First Google Android Smartphone (October 2008) and First 4G WIMAX Smartphone (November 2008). It’s still early in this battle, but HTC’s response is clear and to the point – they won’t be pushed around by Apple.

It’s going to be an interesting legal battle. Will Google get involved and try to legally aid their hardware partners and keep the adoption of Android devices growing? Apple’s approach of attaching HTC seems odd to me. A lot of what the patents talk about are related to Google’s implementation of the operating system and a number of those have been around long before those patents. If HTC wins, it could severely damage Apple’s image, although that’s been happening a lot recently, and spur more sales for Android. Of course, if Apple wins it could spell doom to Android devices in the US.