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ITC不可能判HTC侵权,毕竟影响太大。
The staff of the U.S. International Trade commission has recommended that HTC and Nokia not be found liable of infringing on Apple's patents in a dispute over smartphone technologies.
The ITC trial began on Monday in Washington, with Apple requesting that the commission block imports of HTC's Android-based handsets, as well as some Nokia devices, Bloomberg reports.
Staff lawyer Erin Joffre relayed the ITC staff recommendation, which is made on behalf of the public, in favor of HTC and Nokia at the start of the trial. The staff's recommendation is not binding and will be considered by ITC Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski before he releases his findings on Aug. 5.
Carneski's ruling would then be subject to review by the six-member commission. The ITC serves as a "quasi-judicial" federal agency and has the power to block the importing of products to the U.S.
According to the report, this is the first Android-related patent dispute that has reached the trial stage at the ITC. More than a dozen cases involving smartphones have been brought before the commission.
“What makes Apple products so successful is not just what you see, but what’s under the hood,” said Apple lawyer Greg Arovas of Kirkland & Ellis in opening arguments. Arovas went on to state Apple's claim that HTC infringes five patents vital to the “seamless integration of hardware and software” in a smartphone.
HTC lawyer Robert Van Nest of Keker & Van Nest responded by arguing that Apple's patents "were, at best, a very narrow distinction" from other inventions. At issue are several patents related to signal processing and inter-process communications developed in the early 1990s.
“HTC is a smartphone innovator and pioneer in the smartphone sphere -- they were there long before Apple,” Van Nest said. “The fundamental differences from the Apple patents represent choices made by HTC and Google.”
Apple also alleges that Nokia has violated the same signal processing patent as the one listed in the HTC case. As such, the claim has been "spun off from a separate complaint against Nokia, which is scheduled to be decided by June 24," the report noted.
Nokia lawyer Pat Flinn of Alston & Bird accused Apple of deciding to "dredge up patents" after the "pioneers of mobile phones" approached the company for royalties.
Advances in technology have made the patent moot,” Flinn said of Apple's signal processing patent. “The Apple iPhone doesn’t practice the patent.” |
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