ITC gives HTC one-week reprieve in Apple case

The ITC has delayed its final ruling on Apple's win against HTC by a week. Originally slated for Tuesday, it's now understood to have been set back to December 14. No reason has been given for the shift.

An agreement gives HTC a nine-day reprieve from what may be an unfavorable verdict. The ITC initially ruled for Apple and, even with two patents found in violation, could see some if not much of its lineup banned from sale in the US.

HTC itself has had little success trying to counter Apple and lost a patent battle of its own that was waged by proxy through S3 Graphics. It has potential workarounds to try and stay on sale, but it could lose out on holiday and early 2012 sales if legally sanctioned devices aren't on the market at the time.

Apple's lawsuit from March 2010 included Windows Mobile phones. Most, however, see it primarily as an attempt to slow down or stop Android. The late Steve Jobs saw Android as fundamentally a copy of the iPhone's OS where Microsoft, Oracle, and others targeting Google have mostly seen it as an opportunity for cash or to push companies into making Windows Phones. [via Bloomberg]

By Electronista Staff