It appears that the legal wrangling between Apple and HTC isn’t going to end quickly as the latest move in the patent battle between the iPhone maker and the Android handset maker has now come to UK shores, as HTC has filed a suit against Apple in the United Kingdom with HTC filing their complaint on the 29th of July.
According to a report by Bloomberg, just 2-weeks after the US International Trade Commission found HTC to be guilty of infringing two Apple patents in a preliminary ruling, the Taiwanese smartphone maker has filed a case in the UK courts.
The suit is HTC Europe versus Apple Inc, HC11C02703 and was filed with the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division in London, although there are no details been released about the lawsuit as yet.
HTC is also to file an appeal against the US ITC ruling in which Apple is seeking the blocking on imports of HTC devices. While last month HTC hit back by stating they would purchase S3 Graphics Co to “boost protection of its products,” and this was after S3 won an ITC ruling against Apple.
Apparently when contacted Apple didn’t return the call while an HTC Europe spokesperson declined to comment.
Thus it appears that the HTC, Apple legal spat will continue for some time yet and there’s no sight of a compromise on the cards.
I do have to say that it does seem strange to me that given HTC has been making smartphones for quite a while now that Apple has left it until now to sue the company in an attempt to have their products banned.
Of course HTC isn’t the only mobile device maker Apple is going after on the legal battlefield, as I am sure you know Apple is suing Samsung left right and centre in a bid to put a halt on several Android smartphones and Samsung tablets from being sold such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Which leads me to wonder if Apple is going after these mobile device makers not simply because they feel they infringe on patents, because if so why leave it until recently when they could have taken legal action before, but rather Apple is looking to go after any manufacturer that uses the Android platform.
So the big question is why now? Well my thinking is perhaps Apple wants to tie up rival Android smartphone makers so they have a clear field when they come to releasing the iPhone 5, as perhaps Apple feels somewhat threatened by so many rival Android handsets floating around their iPhone 5 just might suffer; just my personal view.