Apple Brings HTC Into the Hardware Import Mix in Hopes to Ban Sale of Their Products

• Quentyn Kennemer
• 13 years ago

Oh, Samsung isn’t the only one constantly fighting for their lives in court against Apple. HTC is now in the crossfires of Apple based on similar complaints to ones against Samsung. Apple has accused HTC of infringing on patents that they believe should be grounds to ban the sale of HTC products in the United States.

The complaint was filed with the ITC today. Fortunately for HTC, they have made various strategic moves to acquire and license various patents and have a huge chance of thwarting the Apple attack, at least for the time being. With HTC’s portfolio of patents that they claim Apple is infringing on, they have just as much right to countersue Apple in this case and seek to ban the import of their iOS products.

Is this legal battle sounding like a broken record yet? That’s because Apple seems to be going after any and every competitor who dare stand in their way of maintaining significant market share in the smartphone arena. It’s not like Microsoft’s strategy, which only seeks to gain license fees from nearly every Android handset sold.

Apple flatout doesn’t want their competitors to succeed – they shouldn’t want to. But trying to get them banned from store shelves is such a cowardice way of going about your business. Apple, if you had a better business model, you’d still have a significant lead in the smartphone market. Stifling competition might work in the near term, but from my vantage point it looks like you’re fighting an uphill battle without a rope.