If there's one issue that's seemed to dominate the tech world headlines this year, it's been lawsuits.  Continuing the trend, in a potentially large decision today, the U.S. International Trade Commission gave an initial determination in Apple's patent infringement suit against HTC, and it isn't looking good for the latter.

Today, the ITC, which has the authority when it comes to banning the importation of goods into the United States, ruled that HTC had infringed on two of the four patents (originally 10) that Apple had asserted against it, which were 5,946,647 and 6,343,263.  The first of those patents speaks of a "system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer data," and the second describes a "real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data."  The ITC ruled that HTC infringed claims 1, 8, 15 and 19 of the '647 patent and 1, 2, 24 and 29 of the '263 patent.

What's interesting is that at least one, the '647 patent, seems to be related to Android, which could make the ruling today the first to find that Google's mobile OS treads on another's patents.  "They are very likely to be infringed by code that is at the core of Android," notes IP expert Florian Mueller. "It's telling that those two patents are also at issue between Apple and Motorola."

While it would seem that HTC and Android could take a hit, it should also be made known that the ruling today is still going to be subject to review by the full six-member ITC commission.  HTC has already made the decision to appeal the determination.

"HTC will vigorously fight these 2 remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC Commissioners who make the final decision," said HTC general counsel Grace Lei in a statement.  "We are highly confident we have a strong case for the ITC appeals process and are fully prepared to defend ourselves using all means possible."

Google, on the other hand, almost seems to yawn at the decision.  "We're pleased that the ITC ruled against all of Apple's operating system patent claims," said a Google spokesperson in a statement.  "We are confident the Commission will ultimately agree with the ITC staff's finding that HTC does not violate any of Apple's patents.  Litigation that attacks open-source products limits consumer choice, hurts the economy, and discourages innovation."

Ouch. 

via AllThingsD

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