Apple's complaint against HTC reaches further than previously thought
The legal saga between Apple and HTC continues, and it seems that more than just our precious HTC EVOs could be in jeopardy. Following Friday's ruling from the International Trade Commission that HTC violated two patents held by Apple, one patent expert recently came to the conclusion that the patent violations are actually "part of the Android architecture, rather than unique enhancements made by HTC."
According to Florian Mueller, an expert in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) patents, this means that a number of Android handsets made by other manufacturers such as Samsung or Motorola could also be barred from sale within the US beginning in December, when the ITC is expected to make a final decision following its ongoing review.
Although HTC claims that it is working on various solutions to this problem, Mueller believes this could potentially be devastating news to other Android handset manufacturers, as well as Google. In a recent blog post, he said that "it's possible that working around this patent requires a fundamental change to Android's architecture, and possibly even to the architecture of the underlying Linux kernel."
In any case, we should all prepare for the litigation to get increasingly nasty. According to recent job postings, Apple is currently searching for extra lawyers to help in its battle against HTC and company, while Motorola has been attempting to get these same patents invalidated.
It seems that Apple and HTC are gearing up for an epic battle, although HTC will also have the backing of Google and, most likely, of other handset manufacturers who see their own Android sales in similar peril.
Will this be enough to prevail over Apple? Only time will tell.
[Apple Insider via Gizmodo]
