In this week's Law & Apple, the legal adventures of Apple seem to be stickier than cranberry sauce, but at least one major slice of the courtroom pie is going Cupertino's way this week. Also on the roster, HTC pins a lot of wishes, including a $300 million purchase of another company, on a set of complaints filed against Apple. It appears, this time, that Apple gets the better break of the legal wishbone.

Sit down and dig in to another week of Law & Apple. And don't be shy about going for seconds, either. It's Thanksgiving tomorrow, after all. 

HTC vs. Apple 

"The investigation is terminated."

That was the final ruling by the United States International Trade Commission on the first of the patent infringement complaints filed by HTC against Apple. The ITC overturned a preliminary ruling that sided with HTC, and yesterday stated that Apple is actually guilty of "no violation" (PDF).

The development is particularly painful for HTC, who just last week finalized the purchase of S3 Graphics for $300 million, a deal that was supposed to make their case against Apple airtight. It was a deal whose sole apparent purpose was to acquire intellectual property to use as leverage against other tech companies.

"We think this purchase is justified because of all of the patents," explained HTC chief financial office Winston Yung.

We paid $300 million, we kind of needed this one to go the other way.

This ruling by the ITC puts the wisdom of that purchase into question. "We are disappointed, but respect the ITC’s decision," said HTC general counsel Grace Lei. Investors were equally disappointed, as HTC stock suffered a mini-spiral and is down almost six percent since the ruling.

HTC still has a second complaint against Apple awaiting a ruling, and may consider appealing this decision. Apple, however, also has patent infringement complaints filed against HTC; in July, a preliminary ITC judge found HTC was infringing on two Apple patents, and the final ruling on Apple's first complaint is scheduled for December 6. 

As it stands, this ruling is the first of several potentially big losses for HTC; not only because of the ruling, but also because the ruling negates much of the perceived value of the S3 Graphics purchase. It is one thing to lose in court, and quite another to lose $300 million on the way to the courtroom.

Via SlashGear