Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) fails To Put Ban on HTC Phone Imports
HTC Corp. can continue to bring its newest smartphones into the U.S. while a trade agency investigates whether the phones violate an order that the Taiwanese company stop infringing an Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) patent.
The U.S. International Trade Commission yesterday instituted an investigation into Apple’s claim that HTC continues to infringe a patent in violation of an order issued in December. The agency denied an emergency request to have the HTC phones, including the One X and EVO 4G LTE, detained at the U.S. border. Notice was posted on the agency’s electronic docket.
HTC’s phones were held up at the border in May, delaying plans by Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) (S) to sell the HTC EVO 4G. The phones, made in Taiwan, were allowed into the U.S. after HTC assured U.S. Customs and Border Protection that it had worked around the Apple patent.
Shares of the Taiwanese company added 0.8 percent to NT$393.50 as of 9:18 a.m. in Taipei, heading for its highest close in almost four weeks. The benchmark Taiex (TWSE) index climbed 0.3 percent.
The patent covers a system to detect telephone numbers in e-mails so, when the number on the screen is tapped, they can be stored in directories or called without dialing.
Apple filed a complaint last month, accusing HTC of making inaccurate representations to customs officials to bypass the import ban, known as an exclusion order.
HTC said its mobile devices and software were redesigned, and that Apple was making legal arguments regarding infringement it hadn’t made in the original case.
HTC, Asia’s second-largest smartphone maker, is counting on its One series of phones to improve its share of a market that reached $312 billion last year, according to Bloomberg Industries data.
Shares of AAPL are trading up 0.50% at $595.57.