HTC Is Happy About Victory Over Apple In UK

Yesterday we mentioned that a UK court had ruled HTC wasn't infringing on a key Apple patent in the patent infringement row between the two companies. The UK court did uphold the Apple patent was valid, but found HTC didn't infringe on said patent. The High Court in London came to the ruling yesterday and deemed three other Apple patents invalid covering slide to unlock, multitouch, and a multilingual keyboard.

It's unclear if this legal precedent might affect any case is between Apple and HTC in America. HTC has issued a statement saying that it was pleased with the court's ruling. The UK judge ruled other Apple patents invalid stating the multitouch patent was invalid citing "obviousness over common general knowledge."

"HTC is pleased with the ruling, which provides further confirmation that Apple's claims against HTC are without merit," the company said in a statement.

"We remain disappointed that Apple continues to favour competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace."

An Apple spokesperson didn't offer specific comments on the UK ruling but did add, "we think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours." This is certainly not the last patent battle will see between Apple and technology companies around the world. In fact, there are still a number of patent wars raging right now.

[via AFP]