This week, the United States International Trade Commission finally released the long awaited (and delayed!) decision regarding Apple’s complaints against HTC. Apple had claimed that HTC was infringing on ten separate patents, and the ITC ruled that only one of those claims was valid.
So what does this mean for Apple, for HTC, and for the dozens of intellectual property lawsuits going on around the world? Cue the “dun dun” and let’s take a look.
There was no shortage of hyperbole surrounding this case, as it carried the potential to ban all HTC products from the United States and enable Apple to go after every other Android device manufcaturer. Fortunately, the ruling actually landed both companies somewhere in the middle. While it's not the knockout blow that Apple may have sought, it's enough of a victory to get Cupertino exactly what it was fighting for.
On the surface, it may seem like having only one out of ten patent infringement claims upheld by the court is not much a victory at all, especially because HTC is taking that position and claiming it as an actual win for its business. But, the ruling does state a ban of certain HTC products, to be enforced in April of 2012.
"Competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own technology."
Now, it's not Apple's goal to ban all competing handsets. As FOSS Patents points out, since the beginning of this dispute with HTC, Apple has only issued the follwing comment on the situation:
"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," Steve Jobs had said. "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
No company wants to see a marketplace devoid of competition. The suit was about compelling the competition to create its own original technology. Using the courts to force other companies to remove borrowed ideas and designs from competing hardware and software manufacturers is a means to that end, and that is exactly what was accomplished with this latest ruling from the ITC. There is no question Apple would have preferred a wider ruling supporting more, or all, of its claims. This decision is the beginning of a larger strategy, however, to have the competition modify its products, not obliterate them entirely.
Adrian writes the weekly Law & Apple column for MacLife.com. You can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to him on Facebook, if you want to.
