EPLAW Patent Blog

UK - HTC v. Apple (Appeal)

HTC Europe Co. Ltd. V. Apple Inc. and Apple Inc. v. HTC Corporation, Court of Appeal, London, UK, 3 May 2013, [2013] EWCA Civ 451

The Court of Appeal allowed in part Apple’s appeal of the decision of the Patents Court that one of its patents was invalid.

The original trial before Mr Justice Floyd concerned four actions between HTC and Apple regarding four patents owned by Apple. Following the judgment, HTC and Apple settled their dispute and so HTC did not take part in the appeal.

The appeal only concerned the validity of two of the Apple patents, EP (UK) 2 098 948 (“the ‘948 Patent) and EP (UK) 1 964 022 (“the ‘022 Patent”). The ‘948 Patent relates to computer devices with touch sensitive screens which are capable of responding to more than one touch at a time and the ‘022 Patent relates to ways unlocking computer devices with touch sensitive screens. The issues before the Court of Appeal were as follows:

UK - HTC Corporation v. Yozmot 33 Limited

HTC Corporation v. Yozmot 33 Limited, Patents Court, Chancery Division, High Court of Justice, London, UK, 20 April 2010, [2010] EWHC 786 (Pat)

The Patents Court has held Yozmot’s patent EP (UK) 0 909 499 to be partially valid.

Yozmot’s patent concerned a boosted loudspeaker for a mobile telephone. Yozmot alleged infringement of claims 1,2, 5 and 6 of the patent in respect of a number of HTC’s mobile phones and asserted claims 5, 6 and 7 as being independently valid. HTC alleged that the patent was invalid for lack of novelty, obviousness, insufficiency, added matter and unpatentable subject matter.

Mr Justice Arnold held claims 1, 5 and 6 to be invalid for lack of novelty and obviousness. The allegations of insufficiency, added matter and unpatentable subject matter failed and so claim 7 was held to be valid. Mr Justice Arnold held that if claims 1, 5 and 6 were valid, they would have been infringed by HTC.

Read the judgment (in English) here.