(2) Jessica E Vascellaro, Apple Ruling Hits Android; A US trade agencyordered HTC by April to stop importing some smartphones. Wall Street Journal, Dec 20, 2011.
Quote:
Apple Inc won a legal victory that is bad news for rival Google Inc, as a US trade agency ruled thatsome HTC Corp smartphones using Google's Android software infringe on an Apple patent.
"The ITC's [US International Trade Commission's] Monday [Dec 19] decision narrowed an earlier finding that HTC was infringing multiple claims of two separate patents. Instead, it found that some HTC smartphones using Android violated only two claims of one Apple patent related to extracting information from emails and doing something with the information, such as making a phone call. That invention, sometimes described as covering 'data tapping,' allows users to grab data embedded in an unstructured form, like an address, and use it in another phone application, such as mapping.
"It wasn't clear how many HTC smartphones use the infriging technology. Grace Li, the company's general counsel, said in a statement that the rulinginvolved a 'small' user-interface feature and 'HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.'
"A spokesman for Google declined to comment.
"Apple leads the market in the US, with 28.6% of the country's consumer smartphone subscribers in the three-month period ending iin October, ahead of HTC, which had just over 20%, according to Nielsen.
My comment: There is no need to read teh rest of the report.
(3)
(a) Taiwan's HTC Hails US Apple Patent Ruling. AFP, Dec 20, 2011.
(b) Apple Scores Limited Victory in Smartphone Patent War. Reuters
(c) HTC stock (traded in Taipei Stock Exchange) rallied 6.97% Tuesday, whereas Apple share up 3% so far (Tuesday trading is almost over in US: NASDAQ market hours 9:30 am-4:00 pm, besides pre-market trading hours 7:00 am-9:30 am and after-market hours 4:00 pm-8:00 pm).