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Apr 12, 2001
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Last December, Apple won a U.S. International Trade Commission case against HTC, with the agency ruling that several of HTC's handsets infringed upon a pair of Apple-held patents. The agency's ruling included a ban on the import of infringing devices beginning in April, although HTC quickly responded to say that it had already designed a workaround for the issue in question.

But as reported by The Verge late yesterday, U.S. Customs officials have delayed shipments of HTC's new One X and Evo 4G LTE handsets into the United States as it investigates whether those handsets also infringe upon Apple's patents.
We've learned today that the One X and Evo 4G LTE are indefinitely delayed at Customs as the agency investigates patent issues with Apple, and sources have further confirmed that some shipments are indeed being held back. The One X is also currently out of stock at AT&T's online store and at most AT&T retail stores we've called -- and few had any information on when more units would arrive.
HTC issued a follow-up statement confirming the customs hold and indicating that it is working to secure the release of the shipments.
The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC Evo 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.
Dow Jones Newswires provides more information today, noting that HTC will need to delay the launch of the Evo 4G LTE, which had been scheduled to debut on Sprint this Friday, May 18. In addition, AT&T is experiencing shortages of the One X due to the customs hold, although some units were able to enter the country before the import ban went into effect on April 19.

Article Link: HTC Delays Evo 4G LTE Launch as U.S. Customs Investigates Shipments for Breach of Apple Patent
 

Inakto

macrumors regular
Oct 29, 2007
135
0
toronto
US Customs holding competitors' products at the border.
US Government giving tax breaks.

I don't get it
 

ArtOfWarfare

macrumors G3
Nov 26, 2007
9,544
6,042
This seems a bit aggressive... not exactly laissez-faire...

Then again, violating trademarks and patents and such is criminal, so I guess it's called for.
 

Inakto

macrumors regular
Oct 29, 2007
135
0
toronto
While it may seem like that, and Apple remains the biggest company in the world you still need to respect their patents.

That's fine and dandy, however the US Government remains the biggest Government in the world and you still need to respect their (surprisingly low) corporate tax rates.

Again, this is not apple's fault, just the governments' for being so soft.
 

robanga

macrumors 68000
Aug 25, 2007
1,657
1
Oregon
The comments over at Engadget are vehemently anti-apple, which to me is pretty silly. You can not blame Apple for playing the same game that everyone is on IP. Indeed they are forced to. Tell your child to go into patent and trade law everyone the jobs will be plentiful.

...or we could have major IP reform. The expenditures on this sort of thing no doubt sap the innovation they were meant to protect. I'm with Siracusa on this thing or some variation close to his viewpoint:

1. No IP whatsoever for most things related to design or engineering.
2. Drug companies should be the possible exception because of their low rate of success and cost, maybe something like 7 yrs.
3. Copyrights for creative material should expire in 10 years with no renewal.

Move to a performance based economy.. information is a sieve now its only going to get more expensive to maintain IP.
 

DougB541

macrumors 6502a
Apr 13, 2009
617
0
sigh...of course the phone i was ready to shell money out for is delayed.

OF COURSE.
 

kmm1482

macrumors member
May 16, 2012
52
105
I don't know what all the anti-apple comments would be arguing. What would they want them to do? "They infringed on some of our patents. But we're Apple, we'll just let everyone copy our hard earned work and make money off of it."
 

AP_piano295

macrumors 65816
Mar 9, 2005
1,076
17
sigh...of course the phone i was ready to shell money out for is delayed.

OF COURSE.

Same here...yay apple, this actually annoys me enough to stay away from apple products in the future.

I like apple's stuff and occasionally buy it but when they start using litigation to infringe on consumer choice it actually pisses me off.

I don't wan't an iPhone and this doesn't change that, sorry...

EDIT : PS. Bring on the down votes I bashed apple on a front page thread, "He's a witch!!".
 

ChrisTX

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2009
2,690
54
Texas
The famous words spoken by Steve Jobs "and boy have we patented it" referring to the original iPhone back in 2007 have all but been forgotten by everyone in this industry.
 

AP_piano295

macrumors 65816
Mar 9, 2005
1,076
17
I don't know what all the anti-apple comments would be arguing. What would they want them to do? "They infringed on some of our patents. But we're Apple, we'll just let everyone copy our hard earned work and make money off of it."

Yes Apple has a history of letting other companies infringe on its patents :rolleyes:.
 

DougB541

macrumors 6502a
Apr 13, 2009
617
0
What patent(s) did HTC supposedly infringe on?

The converting of phone numbers and email addresses to actionable items. However this is an android wide infringment claim.

Not sure why only HTC is affected here. I'm assuming this doesn't effect Microsoft or RIM because they have long been doing this before as well.
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
The comments over at Engadget are vehemently anti-apple, which to me is pretty silly. You can not blame Apple for playing the same game that everyone is on IP. Indeed they are forced to. Tell your child to go into patent and trade law everyone the jobs will be plentiful.

...or we could have major IP reform. The expenditures on this sort of thing no doubt sap the innovation they were meant to protect. I'm with Siracusa on this thing or some variation close to his viewpoint:

1. No IP whatsoever for most things related to design or engineering.
2. Drug companies should be the possible exception because of their low rate of success and cost, maybe something like 7 yrs.
3. Copyrights for creative material should expire in 10 years with no renewal.

Move to a performance based economy.. information is a sieve now its only going to get more expensive to maintain IP.

Are software patents evil?
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2011/08/09/are-software-patents-evil/
 

Darth.Titan

macrumors 68030
Oct 31, 2007
2,905
753
Austin, TX
That's fine and dandy, however the US Government remains the biggest Government in the world and you still need to respect their (surprisingly low) corporate tax rates.

Umm... as of April 1, 2012 the U.S. has the highest effective corporate tax rate among developed countries: 39.2%
 

ShiftyPig

macrumors 6502a
Aug 24, 2008
567
0
AU
While it may seem like that, and Apple remains the biggest company in the world you still need to respect their patents.

By market cap, which is an expectation of future earnings. By revenue, they aren't even top 100.

Umm... as of April 1, 2012 the U.S. has the highest effective corporate tax rate among developed countries: 39.2%

Learn the difference between effective tax rate and statutory tax rate.
 

e-coli

macrumors 68000
Jul 27, 2002
1,935
1,149
I don't understand the people complaining about IP violations.

Imagine if you built a house for yourself from the ground up, nail by nail, brick by brick. On the day you're finished someone grabs the keys from you and moves in. So you've done all the work, and someone els reaps all the benefits.

Fair? No. That's why IP protections exist.
 
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