Seattle – May 12, 2010 – HTC Corporation today took legal action against Apple Inc., filing a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) to halt the importation and sale of the iPhone, iPad and iPod in the United States.
“As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008, HTC believes the industry should be driven by healthy competition and innovation that offer consumers the best, most accessible mobile experiences possible,” said Jason Mackenzie, vice president of North America, HTC Corporation. “We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones.”
Source: HTC Corporation
MacDailyNews Take: Pfft.
which trademarks?
No way…
As the innovator of the original Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002
…that’s their idea of “innovation”? LOL
@Gabriel
You were reading my mind.
That alone should prove that their claims are invalid on top of the fact that their second device came AFTER the iPhone.
What they have I don’t see Apple taking. Apple is not into crappy products.
If you can’t beat ’em, sue ’em?
firing return salvos, standard procedure in patent fights. what took them so long to find five “infringed upon” patents?
Took them long enough to come up with a counter suit. I wish the 5 patents were listed.
If you can’t innovate, litigate!
Lots if shovels being bought nowadays from the competition.
It’s probably something very broad like “combining a data processing device with a cellular telephony device.” I would like to see the patents that they are claiming Apple infringed.
To be fair, Apple sued ’em first. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect HTC to come up with any counter-suits they can think of… that’s how corporate law works.
For some reason, I’m thinking of Monty Python and the Holy Grail:
“We are claiming infringement on five patents…”
“Three, sire!”
“… three patents.”
Sounds like Google and Microsoft are teaming up against Apple through HTC.
I don’t like this. Whatever the legal basis, or not, it shows that Google will stoop as low as necessary to do anything to hurt its previous ally, Apple, in its greed to push Android on everything everywhere…
Both Goggle and MS would love to win something against Apple and push the iPhone down… Now they are allies.
Furthers my distaste for Goggle. They are opportunists with no scruples or respect or control whatsoever. They think they own all the data on the internet, and on us…our lives, our habits, our connections, everything. I mean, where do you stop with such a mindset?
I think the original understanding between the then-allies, Apple and Google, was that Android would be allowed/tolerated by Apple because it would not employ multi-touch and it would essentially steal the market from Microsoft’s mobile platform, a common enemy who had competed unfairly to create a closed internet, and that Android would therefore not compete directly against the iPhone.
That has clearly changed. Goggle now employs multi-touch on Android and they are clearly going after the iPhone. Even their packaging of the Nexus One was a TOTAL copy of the iPhone and Apple packaging. I mean, they will do anything to eat your children for their lunch!
Now, a step further has been taken. And they are teaming up with Microsoft to sue Apple through HTC! Whoa. Think about it. This is a major, symbolic development.
Google have absolutely no control on their drive to take power at any cost. They think they have the right to owning the entire internet and all the data out there about us and on everything… where do they draw the line? Now they want to stop the iPhone and compete against it directly for market share! Where do they not want to go? Where will they stop? I think the answer is they will not stop and don’t ever plan to. They want to control EVERYTHING.
Think about that…
Death by a 1000 piranha bites?
Is that their tactic?
Is that how you spell ‘piranhas’?
Or is it ‘pee-on-ers’?
Three funny things I find with this article:
1) No mention of which patents are being infringed upon
2) Mentioning that they are the innovator of the first Android phone in 2008. Unless you have previous patents protecting that innovation, the iPhone came out in 2007 and therefore could not copy the Android phones in Amy way, shape, or form.
3) “We are taking this action against Apple most impotantly to protect our customers that use HTC phones.” How does suing Apple protect the consumer? Apple suing Nokia or HTC does nothing to protect me an an iPhone user.
This lawsuit is trying to get a halt on all importation of iPhones, iPads, and iPods. I’d love to hear what patent HTC has on the iPod nano or the shuffle.
I can hear the conversation now at HTC:
“We need to sue Apple! File today!”
“What for, sir?”
“They are suing us so we are going to sue them!”
“Well we need to actually sue them for something.”
“How about patent infringement?”
“What patents are they infringing on?”
“Leave that to engineering. Just file and we can figure it out later!”
“So just sue for patent infringement on the iPhone?”
“No! iPhone, iPad, and the iPod!”
“Um, sir? The iPod is a music player.”
“What?!”
“The iPod plays music. We don’t have patents related to music players.”
“Do you think I care?! I’m sure marketing can find something!”
The result was the above press release.
This situation may be a bit more complicated than some of the posters are recognizing. It may be that part of the patent licensing/sharing agreement between HTC and Microsoft that was recently concluded allows HTC to assert Microsoft’s patent claims against Apple in any litigation in which HTC is sued by Apple on patent grounds. Given that Microsoft is behind schedule in implementing a multitouch mobile operating system, it is much more in HTC’s commercial interest to assert these claims in terms of proving injury than it would be for Microsoft. In addition, if HTC happens to win on these claims in courts, Microsoft might have the opportunity to assert similar claims against Apple later on, and the previous decision would estop a future court from resolving the matter differently.
Ok HTC, you win, you can have the patent for “Windows Mobile PocketPC Phone Edition in 2002”.
Thanks,
Steve Jobs
…and the five patents are:
1. Creating Windows Mobile PocketPC and expecting everyone to think it’s not crap.
2. Not being an innovative “company”
3. This monstrosity ->http://tinyurl.com/wppmonstrocity
4. Waiting for someone else to bring a concept to near perfection and then claiming it.
5. Whining like frilly-skirt, blouse-wearing bee-otches.
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii’d say HTC has a case!
What the he’ll did the HTC phone look like in 2002? I want to compare.
Sorry, HTC owns the patent on cutting an pasting–wouldn’t want you guys to get sued–here’s that url again.
http://tinyurl.com/wppmonstrocity
@btaylor
Great find!
I love the fact that an applique was needed in order to showcase the fact “hey no more plastic pens!”
Nice artist`s rendering of a finger too, who was the model, Fat Bastard?
@chew
Ha! Hilarious…”Fat Bastard”…(LOL)The Price is Right “Loser” soundbite caught me off guard.
I bet the tactile response was nowhere near as dynamic as the iPad or even the iPhone.
Apple recently launched a laser-guided, armor-piercing legal smart bomb on HTC. Today HTC threw some handfulls of dirt back at Apple.
Actually HTC is what gets pierced, the bomb will explode in Google’s bunker.
Expect a counter suit against HTC by microsoft, pointing out their own pioneering use of the word “innovation” to describe a total lack of vision and understanding.
And by the way, HTC is not known to have a great patent portfolio.