Several HTC Devices Have Been Banned From Import Into the U.S.

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has found HTC guilty of infringing upon two of Apple’s patents and ordered a ban on the import of several of HTC’s smartphones. It is not clear which HTC models have been banned. “Notice is hereby given that the U.S. International Trade Commission has found a violation of section 337 in this investigation and has issued a limited exclusion order prohibiting importation of infringing personal data and mobile communications devices and related software,” the ITC said in its ruling. “The Commission has determined that exclusion of articles subject to this order shall commence on April 19, 2012.” The two patents that HTC infringed upon are in regards to “data tapping.” Read a description of the patent and HTC’s response after the break.

In a Google Patent Search, the description of the patent that HTC was found to infringe upon is as follows:

A system and method causes a computer to detect and perform actions on structures identified in computer data. The system provides an analyzer server, an application program interface, a user interface and an action processor. The analyzer server receives from an application running concurrently data having recognizable structures, uses a pattern analysis unit, such as a parser or fast string search function, to detect structures in the data, and links relevant actions to the detected structures. The application program interface communicates with the application running concurrently, and transmits relevant information to the user interface. Thus, the user interface can present and enable selection of the detected structures, and upon selection of a detected structure, present the linked candidate actions. Upon selection of an action, the action processor performs the action on the detected structure.

In response to the ruling, HTC released the following statement to BGR:

“We are gratified that the commission affirmed the judge’s determination on the ‘721 and ‘983 patents, and reversed its decision on the ‘263 patent and partially on the ‘647 patent. We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. However, the ‘647 patent is a small UI experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.”

In other words, HTC is going to do whatever it takes to remove the infringing components so that ITC’s ban has little to no affect on HTC’s importation into the U.S. of their smartphones.