HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s fifth-largest smartphone brand, reaffirmed on Sunday that its subsidiary, S3 Graphics Co, had appealed against an initial ruling that Apple Inc’s iPhone and iPad had not infringed on its patents.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled on Tuesday last week that Apple’s Mac OS X system had infringed on two S3 texture compression patents.
However, the ITC administrative judge said that Apple’s iOS platform, running on its iPhone and iPad, had not infringed on the patents of the California-based graphics chipset designer.
HTC, which recently purchased S3 for US$300 million (NT$8.64 billion) to expand its patent portfolio, said S3 had appealed the ruling.
Separately, HTC reaffirmed that its EVO 3D smartphone would be sold in Europe through UK-based Vodafone Group PLC, amid media reports that the launch of the premium line had been canceled.
Several technology news Web sites reported that Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile company, had decided to cancel the launch of HTC EVO 3D because of delays on HTC’s part.
HTC rebutted the reports in an e-mailed statement late on Sunday, saying the EVO 3D would go on sale through Vodafone and distributors in six major European countries.
The EVO 3D features a 4.3-inch glasses-free 3D display and a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor running the Android 2.3 operating system.
It also allows users to capture photos and video in 3D.
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