Home › News ›

Apple Accuses HTC of Abusing Essential Patents

Jun 22, 2012, 3:45 PM by Eric M. Zeman

Apple has filed a counterclaim against HTC that accuses the Taiwanese smartphone maker of abusing its standards essential patents and failure to offer fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms. This particular action is in response to a claim filed against Apple by HTC. In Apple's filing, it says HTC used legal trickery to sue it over patent violations while at the same time refusing to license those patents in compliance with FRAND. In particular, Apple accuses HTC of breach of contract based on standards-related misconduct; fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud; promissory estoppel; conspiracy under statute 1 of the Sherman Act (relating to cartels); violation of statue 2 of the Sherman Act (relating to monopolies); violation of 15 U.S.C. statue 8 (illegal restraint of import trade); and violation of Virginia state antitrust law. HTC joins Samsung and Motorola in the short list of companies accused of abusing standards essential patents. These particular patents pertain to LTE/4G technologies.

FOSS Patents »

Related

Samsung Refreshes Galaxy S Series with S Pen, New Cameras

Feb 9, 2022
Samsung today announced its lineup of flagship phones for 2022: the Galaxy S22 series. The top-end S22 Ultra sees the biggest changes as it essentially absorbs Samsung's Note series with an integrated S Pen stylus and a more Note-like shape and design, instead of the Contour Cut design of the other models.

iPhone 14 Plus Offers a Big Screen For Less

Sep 7, 2022
Apple has revealed the iPhone 14 series, with new features, improved specs, and new size options. In place of a Mini option, the iPhone 14 will come in the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screen size options as the Pro models.

iPhone 15 Series Goes All-In on USB-C and Dynamic Island

Sep 12, 2023
Apple has revealed the iPhone 15 series, which moves to a USB-C connector and brings several key features from last year's Pro models to the more-affordable standard models. These include the pill-shaped sensor cutout in the display that Apple calls Dynamic Island, a brighter display that can reach 2000 nits, a 48 megapixel main camera, and the A16 Bionic processor chip.

iOS 16 Revamps the Lock Screen

Jun 6, 2022
Apple today announced iOS 16, the next version of its core software for iPhones. The new OS features a major revamp of the Lock Screen with new personalization, including font & color options, and widgets that are similar to complications on the Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Goes Ultra

Sep 7, 2022
Apple has refreshed its Apple Watch lineup with Series 8, a new Watch SE, and added a larger, more rugged Apple Watch Ultra for athletes and extreme adventurers. Apple Watch Series 8 has two main upgrades over Series 7: temperature sensors and Crash Detection.

more news about:

Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

melrhodes

Jun 22, 2012, 6:46 PM

Apple sues all customers...

reason: customers call the phone they purchased as "my iPhone"
iPhone is owned ONLY by Apple

Tofuchong

You Sir are 100% correct !

You do not own your iPhone - It is property of apple. You may not customize it, that wouldn't be what apple wants. You can't install your own personal software on it - Apple wouldn't want it that way either. You are pa...
(continues)

...

shawn1307

Jun 22, 2012, 5:32 PM

Oh Apple

If apple spent half as much time on building a phone as they do suing companies over patents they might actually have a phone that could compete with other smart phones these days...

muchdrama

shawn1307 said:
If apple spent half as much time on building a phone as they do suing companies over patents they might actually have a phone that could compete with other smart phones these days...

Let's not get cr...
(continues)

...

Tofuchong

Jun 22, 2012, 4:58 PM

Apple accuses Sun of being too bright; Moon of resembling a mans face

Apple has filed a claim against our own star, the Sun, stating that the sun is abusing its nuclear fusion patents and failure to offer Super, Uninterupted, and Non-Nuclear Yield (SUNNY) licensing terms. This particular action is in response to a claim that when an apple employee looks at the sun, as quoted, "It's just too damn bright".

In Apple's filing, it says the sun used orbital trickery to appear less bright at certain times, however still outputing the same amount of light and still causing damaging effects to the eyes and skin. Apple states this is not in compliance with SUNNY.

The Sun joins The Moon, and Finland in the short list of entities accused of abusing standards essential patents. Finland was added to the lawsuit be...
(continues)

bluecoyote

to be rooting for the losing team.

...

bluecoyote

Jun 22, 2012, 9:49 PM

Ripping off designs vs. FRAND patents.

Since nobody here bothered to do a basic Google search as to the difference between the patents Apple is suing these other companies over vs. the patents Apple is suing over abusing, let me break this down:

1) All of these companies are part of a trade group. They all have contributed to the field of wireless communication as we know it today, with each holding patents essential to the very technologies our phones rely on. Obviously, it'd be crippling if someone bottlenecked things such as LTE or GSM communications, or HTTP data transfer. That's why these patents are covered under what's known as FRAND terms, which means a company will not artificially inflate the value of the patent to stifle competition.

If you follow up on patent la...
(continues)

DAntiVirus

Yet if you look at the industry news, Apple pretty much sues everyone for anything.

'This company's phone almost looks like ours..sue them'

'Hey, they're using tech we want..sue them.'

Etc., etc.

A day doesn't go by without reading somethi...
(continues)

...

Slammer

Jun 23, 2012, 12:06 PM

Interesting Article:

This is worth reading.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/08/apple _frand/

John B.

xzavier2008

Jun 22, 2012, 10:02 PM

Apples all over the place

WTF!!!??? can Apple not come up with new products and stop suing every F'n company out there.

I'm reading on here on PHone scoop "Apple Accuses HTC of Abusing Essential Patents" and on Engadget "Judge Dismisses Apple and Motorola's lawsuit.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/22/judge-dismisses-a ... »

Give me break

Page 1 of 1