Apple Inc may face a difficult task invalidating two HTC Corp (宏達電) patents for data transmission in wireless devices, a US trade judge said at a trial that could lead to import bans on the newest iPad and next version of the iPhone.
“Clear and convincing means something to me,” US International Trade Commission Judge Thomas Pender said on Thursday in Washington, referring to the legal standard in determining that a patent should not have been issued.
“I have to be pretty darn certain a US patent is invalid,” he said.
HTC accuses Apple of infringing two patents it owns for ways to reliably transmit a larger amount of data.
Taoyuan-based HTC said the patented methods are critical to the 4G technology known as LTE, or long-term evolution, that allows faster downloads.
A victory could let HTC seek an import ban on the latest iPad and even the newest iPhone, if it uses LTE when it is unveiled as early as next week. That could give the Taiwanese handset maker leverage to force a settlement with Apple, which has made its own patent infringement claims against HTC.
The newest iPad, which went on sale in the US in March, is the first from Apple that runs on LTE wireless networks. Apple is expected to introduce its newest iPhone on Wednesday, and HTC can argue that it should be subject to an import ban because it was in production during the pre-trial investigative portion of the case.
Apple and HTC have been embroiled in patent battles over features in smartphones since March 2010, when Apple filed its first infringement claim at the trade agency. The case at trial on Thursday, and an earlier case HTC lost at the commission, “were filed in retaliation against Apple,” Apple lawyer Michael McKeon of Fish & Richardson in Washington said.
HTC lawyer Tom Jarvis of Finnegan Henderson said the company was the first to sell Android and 4G devices and one of the first with touch screens.
“HTC is an innovator,” Jarvis told the judge. “It’s no Johnny-come-lately.”
However, in this case, HTC acquired the patents at issue in April last year, around the same time it began selling its first LTE phone, the Thunderbolt. The patents are part of a portfolio HTC bought for US$75 million from ADC Telecommunications Inc.
“I don’t care if they bought these patents to sue you or not,” Pender told McKeon. “They are a property right.”
In a court filing, HTC said it bought the patents, which ADC said were being infringed by Apple, “to protect itself and its customers from these aggressive tactics and to preserve its ability to compete in the US.”
The case on trial on Thursday, filed in August last year, initially included five patents that HTC obtained from Google Inc. Pender threw out that part of the case, saying HTC did not have adequate ownership control under the terms of its agreement with Google. The commission upheld that decision in July.
Pender said he probably would not side with Apple’s argument that HTC did not have proper ownership rights of the two former ADC patents.
Separately, HTC won a court ruling dismissing a patent infringement case against it after a judge found the inventor made false declarations to patent officials.
US District Judge William Hart in Chicago on Thursday ruled that Daniel Henderson, the founder of Intellect Wireless, made false statements to the US Patent and Trademark Office to overcome prior art, or previous references, cited in opposition to elements of his patents.
Henderson claimed HTC infringed patents covering technology allowing a wireless device to receive and display caller identification, pictures, video messages and multimedia messaging services.
“This case presents not just one instance of a false statement, but a series beginning in August and December of 2006,” Hart wrote in his opinion.
Tesla Inc temporarily halted some production at its auto assembly plant in California because of problems with its supply chain, but work has begun to resume, CEO Elon Musk told employees in an e-mail on Thursday. “We are experiencing some parts supply issues, so took the opportunity to bring Fremont production down for a few days to do equipment upgrades and maintenance,” Musk said in an all-staff message seen by Bloomberg. The factory was “back up and running as of yesterday,” and would rapidly ramp up to full production of Model 3 and Model Y cars “over the next several days,”
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to post a 25 percent year-on-year increase in sales in the first quarter of this year to US$12.91 billion, up from US$10.31 billion a year earlier, as its production is at full capacity, market advisory firm TrendForce Corp said in a note last week. The increase would help TSMC cement its leadership in the industry by taking a 56 percent market share in the global pure wafer foundry business, TrendForce said. Its forecast was in line with TSMC’s estimate in January, which pointed to a range of US$12.7 billion to US$13 billion for the
MULTI-USE: The arrangement of seats in future vehicles would be different, allowing passengers to do everything they do at home, the CEO of the firm’s EV platform said Electric vehicles (EVs) developed on a Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) platform would be built like “a smartphone on a different platform,” Jack Cheng (鄭顯聰), chief executive officer of the Hon Hai-initiated MIH Open Platform Alliance, said on Saturday. It would be the ultimate goal to make vehicles built on the platform an extension of the driver’s home, he said during an online presentation. The alliance aims to provide resources to automakers and boost Taiwan’s EV development, with a vision to make an EV its owner’s “second home,” Cheng said. “Whatever they can do in their home, they will be able
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was on Thursday set to sell local currency bonds, as it prepared for a spending blitz amid a global chip shortage. The world’s largest contract chipmaker planned to price about NT$16 billion (US$565.25 million) of notes in three parts in an auction, though the actual issuance size might change. The manufacturer would have to contend with a recent rise in rates globally that has sent many corporate bond yields up from record lows in the past few weeks. The debt offering comes at a promising time for the semiconductor industry as the world scrambles its way
RSS