“Apple’s patent dispute with HTC reached a new level today with word that U.S. imports of HTC phones are being delayed by Customs officials,” Steven Musil reports for CNET.
“The One X and Evo 4G LTE are being delayed indefinitely by U.S. Customs officials over unresolved patent infringement issues with Apple, HTC said,” Musil reports. “HTC was dealt a setback last December when the International Trade Commission, a federal agency with the power to enforce bans on products shipping to the U.S., ruled that HTC infringed on Apple’s patent for data detection. The process allows a mobile device to recognize things like e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and addresses in text and automatically move them to a calendar, dialer, or mapping application.”
Read more in the full article here.
Clare Jim reports for Reuters, “Shares in HTC tumbled more than 6 percent after it said shipments of the phones were being held up by U.S. customs officials.”
“Some shipments of the One X model had reached the U.S. before the ban date, enabling the model’s launch, but further shipments are being held up, an HTC official in Taipei said,” Jim reports. “‘It’s really hard to tell how much longer the phones will be held up at the customs because the review has already taken a month,’ said Bonnie Chang, an analyst of Yuanta Securities. ‘Previously, it was expected that general exclusion order from the patent infringement referred to only old models from HTC,’ Goldman Sachs said in a trading note to clients seen by Reuters. ‘However, the latest news suggest otherwise with all models (new and old) potentially at risk.'”
Jim reports, “It said the U.S. market was expected to account for 15-20 percent of HTC’s second-quarter shipments, and this delay might hit the company’s earnings this quarter and possibly in the third quarter, depending on how quickly HTC could resolve the issue.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Nice, but ticky-tack. We have to wonder, will the end total of punishments ever really fit the crime?
Related article:
Steve Jobs: ‘I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product; I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this’ – October 20, 2011
Is this the first live salvo fired on US soil?
I hope the ban stays. It will show ALL companies that stealing won’t be tolerated anymore.
This is certaintly not ticky-tack. Injunction is the best result and very hard to get in court. This is the only remedy at the ITC so this was a good move by Apple to enjoin HTC in the US market.
It does seem like a small penalty.
And why do the phones which previously got through Customs, but which also infringe Apple patents, get to stay in stores? I would think they should be pulled and sent to Customs warehouses.
In fact, I think all patent-infringing phones sold should be recalled, buyers fully refunded.
Why should companies even partially-benefit from stealing from Apple?
And this is in the USA only, right? So HTC can still sell their stolen product around the globe?
No, this requires much bigger action.
Hopefully this is just a Thin-Edge-Of-The-Wedge strategy by Apple.
I love your post. I agree HTC whose sole business is stealing from Apple needs to be out of business fast.
FUHTC.
Come on, give HTC a little credit. Not every product they make is being banned from the market, only those phones proven in a US court of law to violate US pat. regs.
So why would you condemn every product they make? Surely not to punish them out of existence? What would be the point in that?
Not to worry, Customs will simply ask retailers to turn over the contraband, including those sold to the public, end of story.