HTC Files Appeal Against US Ruling Favoring Apple in S3 Graphics Patent Claim - WSJ.com

HTC Files Appeal Against US Ruling Favoring Apple in S3 Graphics Patent Claim - WSJ.com:

"HTC Corp. is appealing a U.S. International Trade Commission preliminary ruling declaring some Apple Inc. mobile products didn't violate patents held by S3 Graphics, HTC said in a statement Sunday."

S3 Patents that Apple Violated Were Ruled Unpatentable | Analysis | The Mac Observer

S3 Patents that Apple Violated Were Ruled Unpatentable | Analysis | The Mac Observer:

In a rather interesting turn of events, the two patents owned by S3 that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) were being violated by Apple’s Mac OS X operating system have been ruled to be unpatentable due to prior art by the U.S. Patent & Trade Mark Office (USPTO). The curious thing about the ruling, however, is that it came the same day as the ITC ruling, five days before HTC bought S3 in order to use that ITC ruling against Apple...

According to Mr. Macari’s analysis, there isn’t anything that necessarily binds the ITC to pay attention to USPTO reviews, but it’s common for it to do so. The other two S3 patents were still being reviewed, however, and it’s a complete coincidence that the USPTO’s review findings were issued on the same day that AL Gildea issued his own ruling.

All this happened on July 1st — the ITC found that Apple was infringing on the S3 patents (it was July 26th when the ITC revealed some details of the ruling, including that it was Apple’s Mac OS X that infringed, clearing iOS in the process) and the USPTO ruled those same patents as unpatentable.

HTC Willing To Talk It Out With Apple Over Mobile Patents | mocoNews

After a bruising round at the International Trade Commission that saw two of HTC’s products declared in violation of Apple patents, it seems HTC has decided that it wants to talk things out, according to comments made by its chief financial officer and reported by Bloomberg. The company’s stock price has suffered in the wake of that decision as well as following HTC’s decision to buy S3 Graphics—a company that has scored patent wins against Apple—for $300 million, and it rose following word that talks were on the table.

There’s no sign that Apple is actually willing to talk (in trademark fashion, an Apple representative didn’t respond to Bloomberg’s inquiries), but very rarely do technology patent cases actually come down to an injunction prohibiting the sale of the losing products that is threatened at every turn. They’re almost always settled with money, be it lump sums, ongoing royalty payments, or both. Apple recently settled its patent dispute with Nokia by agreeing to ongoing royalty payments.