Sues HTC for Patent Infringement. HTC feeling Apple's fury over smartphone patents. Apple has filed a lawsuit against smartphone maker HTC, alleging that it violates as many as 20 patents that Apple has on the iPhone interface and hardware architecture. A parallel complaint has also been filed with the International Trade Commission to block imports of devices that violated the patents in question. "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We've decided to do something about it," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.
" Those comments are similar to those made by COO Tim Cook when asked last January about the similarities between the Palm Pre and the iPhone. Those weapons include a number of patents, including several for touch-based interfaces, hardware design, and a comprehensive patent on a "graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics. " Apple's ITC complaint names HTC phones, 10 other patents. As we reported, Apple filed a federal lawsuit against HTC Tuesday claiming infringement of 10 of Apple's patents related to smartphone technology. Apple said that HTC violated 20 of its patents, and the remaining 10 are covered under a parallel complaint with the ITC. That complaint also names essentially every current HTC product as infringing devices. The complaint, unlike the federal lawsuit, specifically calls out HTC smartphones by name.
Devices suspected of infringement include the Nexus One, Touch Pro and Pro2, Touch Diamond, Tilt II, Pure, Imagio, Dream (aka T-mobile G1), myTouch 3G, Hero, HD2, and Droid Eris. Several of the devices run Google's Android operating system, though the rest run a version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. The 10 patents in question in the ITC complaint include: Those patents are related to technologies used in the iPhone and iPod touch as well as Macs running Mac OS X. Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown. Apple suing HTC over 20-odd patents before both the US District Court and the International Trade Commission has certainly caused some chaos this morning, but we thought we'd take a quick breath now that we have the complaints and tease out exactly what patents are at stake here. Of note, most of the patents were granted in the past year, but overall they span a range from 1995 to February 2.
Yes, last month. That's a pretty big gap, and most of the patents are pretty dry and technical -- and none of them cover anything like pinch-to-zoom. In fact, you might remember #7,479,949, "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics" -- we blew apart the myth that it was Apple's "multitouch patent" back when Cupertino was making noise about Palm.
Okay, we'll break these apart like Apple does -- first the ones from the federal lawsuit, and then the ones from the ITC complaint. The year was 1998, and times were lean in Cupertino. How Apple and Google's Romance Turned To Hate - Apple - Gizmodo. The Complaint: Apple’s Patent Lawsuit Against HTC Is All About A. Earlier today, Apple issued a press release stating that it has filed suit against cell phone manufacturer HTC for patent infringement. No mention of Android or Google was in the press release. But the actual legal complaints, which we’ve obtained and embedded below, make no bones about it. As expected, this lawsuit is about Android. HTC, of course, is one of the largest manufacturers of Android handsets.
The complaint filed in U.S. At least one of the patents (No. 7,479,949) lists Steve Jobs as an inventor, and describes a method to use a touchscreen as a graphical user interface “detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display” (i.e. multi-touch). Another complaint was filed with the ITC and may include other patents, since there are only ten here and Apple claims 20 patents are being infringed altogether.
I Stand By This Quip From October. Google Backs Its Boy, HTC, In The Apple Lawsuit Ring. As you’ve undoubtedly heard by now, Apple has filed a lawsuit against device-maker HTC over 20 patents they control. As you might imagine, Google has something to say about it too. “We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it,” a Google spokesperson emailed us. A little odd that Google would proactively send us a statement for something they’re not technically involved in. But, as we’re all well aware, this suit is much more about Google’s Android operating system than HTC.
As we noted earlier, the clear focus of the suit centers around the HTC devices that are Android-based, including the Nexus One, the Magic/myTouch 3G, the Dream/G1, the Hero, and the Droid Eris. Still, for whatever reason, Google is not named in the suit — at least not yet. [image: warner brothers pictures]