Taiwanese smartphone and tablet maker HTC has announced that it has received notice of the ITC judge’s initial determination in its ongoing patent war with Apple.

On Friday a US International Trade Commission (ITC) judge determined that HTC has in fact infringed upon two of the ten patents for which the Cupertino-based iPad and iPhone maker is suing the company. HTC stated that because it doesn’t have access to the judge’s full opinion and analysis at this time, it hasn’t had time to fully analyse these. Nonetheless, it will be appealing the ruling.

According to FOSS Patents tech blog, the two patents that the ITC judge determined HTC to be in violation of are US Patent No. 5,946,647 as well as US Patent No. 6,343, 263. The former covers a "system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data", whilst the latter deals with a "real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data".

The FOSS Patent’s Florian Mueller stated that the ITC judges decision isn’t final as yet, as it still needs to be affirmed (plus HTC is due to appeal the decision). If it goes through, HTC faces a US ban on imports, but a patent deal with Cupertino is a far more likely outcome in that case. Especially in light of the fact that HTC also pointed out that the ITC found Apple guilty of infringing on patents owned by S3 Graphics, which recently became an HTC subsidiary.  

“We are highly confident we have a strong case for the ITC appeals process and are fully prepared to defend ourselves using all means possible,” said Grace Lei, general counsel of HTC.

“We strongly believe we have alternate solutions in place for the issues raised by Apple. We look forward to resolving this case, so we can continue creating the most innovative mobile experiences for consumers.”

 

Apple recently filed a second patent infringement complaint against HTC, listing a total of five patents, three of which also come up in its legal actions against HTC’s fellow Android mobile device manufacturer, Samsung.