HTC adjudged to not have infringed Apple's patents

06/07/2012

HTC has claimed an important legal victory over Apple in their long-running patent dispute as a High Court in London has ruled in its favour.

The judge ruled that HTC had not infringed four technologies that Apple had claimed as its own including its slide-to-unlock feature.

He said that the feature was an "obvious" development in the light of similar technology seen on an earlier Swedish handset.

This victory comes at a welcome time for the firm following a dramatic share fall last month after the company said it expected profit to be 13 per cent lower than initial projections.

The judge ruled that HTC's "arc unlock" feature would have infringed Apple's technology had it not been for a device that was released in 2004.

He added that the concept of an unlock "slider" was not new since it had already appeared in Microsoft's CE system, so he couldn't rule in Apple's favour.

Posted by Simon Thomas

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