by Rob Welham
BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC has filed a patent complaint against Apple, and asked for the U.S. sale of iPhones, iPads and iPods to be halted. The move comes after Apple sued HTC in March, alleging it had infringed 20 patents relating to the iPhone.
In its case filed at the U.S. International Trade Commission, HTC argue that Apple had infringed on five of its patents. "We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industrial partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones," said Jason Mackenzie, HTC's vice president for North America.
The action is seen as a tit-for-tat reaction over Apple's suit which was filed in earlier this year. At the time Apple's co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs put out a statement saying, "We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it...We've decided to do something about it."
Firms frequently argue over patents, though such actions rarely lead to product bans. HTC is the latest in a series of disputes with Apple. The world's biggest mobile phone maker Nokia is also embroiled in a patent suit with Apple.
Such action is however unsurprising to many technology analysts. "It's tit-for-tat to a degree because Apple sued HTC first and this is HTC fighting back," Van Baker of research firm Gartner told the BBC. "Ultimately, the whole patent portfolio issue needs to be addressed and resolved.
It is not uncommon to have potential patent infringements as new products come to market. Usually they are worked out via some cross-licensing deal but in the interim it is highly unlikely anyone will be shut out of the market."
(Agencies)
