In March 2, 2010, Apple filed suit against HTC, alleging that the company infringed 20 patents "related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware." Steve Jobs even released this statement:
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 We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.The 20 patents in litigation were:
Patent #7,362,331: Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States
Patent #7,479,949: Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics
Patent #7,657,849: Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image
Patent #7,469,381: List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display
Patent #5,920,726: System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device
Patent #7,633,076: Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices
Patent #5,848,105: GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality
Patent #7,383,453: Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor
Patent #5,455,599: Object-Oriented Graphic System
Patent #6,424,354: Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods
Patent #5,481,721: Method for providing automatic and dynamic translation of object oriented programming language-based message passing into operation system message passing using proxy objects
Patents #5,519,867 and #6,275,983: Object Oriented Multitasking System and Object-Oriented Operating System
Patent #5,566,337: Method and apparatus for distributing events in an operating system
Patent #5,929,852: Encapsulated network entity reference of a network component system
Patent 5,946,647: System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data
Patent #5,969,705: Message protocol for controlling a user interface from an inactive application program
Patent #6,343,263: Real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data
Patent #5,915,131: Method and apparatus for handling I/O requests utilizing separate programming interfaces to access separate I/O service
Patent #RE39,486: Extensible, replaceable network component system
Apple filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and a complaint against HTC under Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C. Apple even requested the U.S. International Trade Commission to block imports of HTC's patents. The ITC rejected all but one of Apple's claims, ruling for Apple on a single claim related to data tapping. HTC motioned the Delaware court for a change of venue to the Northern District of California, arguing against Apple's desire to consolidate the case with the similar cases brought by Nokia against Apple,[202] alleging insubstantial overlap between those cases and Apple's complaint, but Judge Gregory M. Sleetdenied HTC's motion for a venue change, ruling that Apple's choice of forum would prevail.
Hi Shauray, great job on the post. Your post about the Apple-HTC patent case was very thorough and comprehensive, and thanks for listing all the patents relevant to the case and hyperlinking to the actual patents for potential further research. It is interesting how different legal bodies can have different rulings based on the exact same set of evidence. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see that there were quite a few patents involved in this case. Interesting for you to mention that the court denied HTC's motion to consolidate the case with the Nokia v. Apple case, because year's earlier Nokia sued HTC for patent infringement, which ended with a new licensing agreement amongst the two.
ReplyDeleteHi Shauray, very informative collection of specific patent litigation cases! To me Apple is suing HTC for what sounds like fairly standard activities for a smartphone. I can understand Apple's eagerness to defend their IP portfolio however
ReplyDeleteHi Shauray,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very informative and interesting blog post. You listed 20 different patent litigations (that must have taken a long time!). This was very thorough and informative. However, I think you could have also put more of your thought into the blog post.