We've already seen a couple of tidbits of news related to the legal battles between Apple HTC so far this month, and now we've got another to add to the list. It's been revealed that Apple has filed counterclaims against HTC in response to an ITC complaint that the Taiwanese firm's filed against Apple, which is actually the same case in which a judge recently tossed out five patents that HTC tried to borrow from Google. Apple's counterclaim is filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and alleges that HTC abused a pair of standard-essential patents related to 4G LTE. In its counterclaim, Apple purports that HTC has hidden the patents from standards setting organizations while using them in a suit against Apple and has also avoided its obligations to license the patents on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.
As I mentioned before, this isn't the first time we've heard legal news related to Apple and HTC this month. Apple filed a new ITC complaint against HTC in early June in which it claimed that 29 HTC-made devices have infringed upon one of its patents, and then a judge said HTC couldn't fight Apple with five patents gained from Google because HTC had not acquired all of the necessary rights to the patents. With this latest claim involving the two companies, it kind of feels like the Apple/HTC battle is becoming the new Apple/Samsung. And while it's not yet clear how this latest chapter will turn out, it seems unlikely that this will be the last time we hear of a new claim being filed between Apple and HTC. Stay tuned.
Via Engadget, FOSS Patents
