Okay Geek Farm
HTC wants the iPad, iPhone and iPod banned - taking legal action
Brandon Davenport
HTC seems to be hot under the collar, and they have done it - they have filed a patent complaint against Apple and they are asking for a complete ban on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Now, we all have to look at this in reality’s terms:
HTC: Hey, Apple! Stop selling those iPads, iPods and iPhones (shakes fist)
Apple: LOL! - Someone get them out of our hair, give em’ a shuffle or something…
What went down
Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC, just filed a grande size complaint with the International Trade Commission, asking for importation and sales of all iPhones, iPads, and iPods to be banned due to alleged infringement of five patents.
HTC apparently hasn’t filed a corresponding federal lawsuit, but everyone is figuring that is the next step. They have gone out and published a very spit-shined article on their corporate blog, and up until now have been praying that Apple does not dig into their pocket of legal gunk and fling some at their face.
In related news, Gizmodo has put up a list of the patents in Question, which range from power management, personalized phone dialers, and a telephone dialer with easy access memory. This seems like small potatoes compared to the 20 patents Apple slammed HTC with in early March, which were much more significant, but this is still a bit of a shock to Apple and the people who love iStuff.
Peter Chou, CEO of HTC
So whats the worst that could happen - Well, what could happen is iPads, iPhones and iPods would be banned from being sold and imported, and there would be madness in the streets and kids crying (we don’t want that do we?). So what’s the likely hood of Apple going belly up and HTC pumping their fists in the air? Probably not a big chance - but what’s scary is that HTC only has to prove infringement of one of these claims to win the case.
This may get messy - Read more in the “Source Content” below and also check out the official documentation of this conundrum.
