At first look this may seem pretty bad. HTC, according to the courts, are using an Apple patent and, if it’s not removed, handsets would have to be removed from sale all across America.
Looking deeper into it and you be right in thinking that this is actually a small win for HTC. The original lawsuit named 10 patents, but HTC are now only guilty of infringing one of them.
HTC said the patent in question related to a small user-interface feature often called “data tapping”, which allowed users to grab embedded information, such as a phone number, and do something with it, such as make a call.
HTC is now planning to remove and replace the feature.
Link – BBC News
Apple really are up their own arse arnt they. “Data Tapping” has been around for years. It was available on my XDA over 10 years ago, way before Apple even thought about making a phone.
Sadly Apple are a pathetic bully but even worse a bully that cheats . These are not their patents they just buy them to use as a stick to beat their competitors . Perhaps if they spent more time trying to make a new phone rather than just tweak existing ones then they’d be able to compete properly with real phone makers like Samsung and HTC .
I can not agree more, well said.
It is for me impossible to understand how Apple have managed to make such a poor product as the iphone so popular. It is very obvious that they have realized their product is so far behind most of the other manufacturers that they must use these tricks with purchased patents to get rid of competition. These tricks are just another reason to stay as far away as possible from Apple products.
lol what a load of rubbish you Android fans come up with Apple came to the market and blow it away and still does. At least Windows are making there interface not look like Apples….
HTC bring out too many phones out a year and need to make more effort on just 1 or 2 phones…
Ask your self why they put the function in there phones if they didn’t own it… cheap cheap cheap thats all they are….
love this site for its Apple haters …. all you do is talk about Apple…
Apple Fan boy…..
Your signature says it all another one bought by marketing you probably think Apple really invented all these ideas . Taking another idea slightly changing it then re naming it is not innovation .
Mmmmm so when the original iPhone came out all the other phones looked and did what apples phone did…?? Think you better look back and also in HTC on who owns it and what they have bought along the way … You might be surprised on how they became mobile phone makers……
*yawn* Another soul sucked in by the Apple Marketing inc.
Yawn another Android fan boy thinking there phone is soooooo much better than anyone else ….
Wasnt this a windows smartphone feature boasted by the original SPV 100 phone – smart tags? a feature that has been in outlook for donkey years before apple.
When the iphone came out I was using a stylus with my HTC. the iphone was a game changer but, now the others have caught up and overtaken apple technically in many respects. Apple know the Android model is the future and will do anything to try and stop it. HTC aren’t serious because they make their phones redundant within a few months, this is a stupid business model that can only end in failure. HTC should have remained an OEM, they could have been making iphones! I think Samsung will be the Android standard bearer eventually as HTC have peaked.