Apple scores limited victory in smartphone patent war


TAIPEI |
Tue Dec 20, 2011 12:11am EST

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Apple Inc scored a narrow victory against Taiwan’s HTC Corp in a patent lawsuit over smartphone technology that will set the stage for further battles between rival makers in the fiercely competitive market.

In a case seen as a proxy for a larger fight between Google Inc’s Android operating system and Apple’s iOS, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that HTC infringed on one of four patents Apple had disputed and imposed a sales ban on some of the Taiwan maker’s phones.

While the ruling is unlikely to hurt HTC as much as initially feared because it will have time to work around the offending technology and has until April before the ban becomes effective, it offers Apple ammunition to pursue other makers it believes infringe on its technology.

“This is one skirmish in one battle, which is forming a much larger war and each side has got some ammunition left,” said David Wilson, a London-based partner

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