The ITC is now going to investigate HTC's claim to determine if Apple products (iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.) infringe on HTC's patents. This comes after Apple sued HTC for alleged infringement of 20 its patents in March.
The battle between HTC and Apple is part of a larger war between Apple and Google. Phones utilizing Google's Android operating system compete with the iPhone, which is one of the largest, if not the largest, revenue streams for Apple. HTC makes a variety of phones that run the Android operating system and, consequently, Apple likely wants to squeeze them out the market and make potential market entrants more hesitant to enter.
HTC, as well as other players in the smart phone market, will increasingly have the strength of the patents, as well as their "design-arounds", tested as Apple continues to aggressively defend their intellectual property. We will continue to monitor developments in the litigation between Apple and HTC.
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