Apple loses court fight with HTC over iPhone patents

Apple has suffered a high court defeat in its claim that Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC infringed its inventions, as the industry's bitter international patent wars came to British shores.

Three claims over iPhone features - that the US manufacturer alleged were original inventions - were struck out by the court as invalid, and HTC was found not to have infringed a fourth, valid patent.

Apple's defeat covered its prized iPhone and iPad 'slide-to-unlock' patent, which is at the centre of the international battles between the rivals, so the judgment of the English courts is also likely to have an impact on ongoing disputes in Germany and the US.

Along with the slide-to-unlock mechanism, HTC challenged Apple's patents on the iPhone's "multi-touch" system. Both are prize features in the American company's portfolio, according to intellectual property experts. The other patents in the case related to the way the iPhone manages photographs, and the use of different character sets in text messaging.

A HTC spokesman welcomed the London court's ruling, which said parts of the slide-to-unlock patented were too "obvious" or foreshadowed by earlier patents.

The multi-touch patent was also found to be partly invalid because it was too obvious, while Mr Justice Floyd said HTC's smartphones did not infringe what remained.

"One of the invalidated patents is Apple's flagship 'slide to unlock' patent. Apple's photo management patent was found not to be infringed," an HTC spokesman said.

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

Apple declined to comment on details of the case but a spokesman said: "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."

Peter Bell, an intellectual property specialist at the law firm Stevens & Bolton, said the case was likely to have "significant ramifications" across Europe.

"As well as suing HTC in the UK, Apple has also asserted all of these patents against Samsung in the UK and it has asserted the foreign equivalents of some of these patents against HTC, Samsung and Motorola in Germany and the Netherlands," he said.

"Apple has even succeeded in getting injunctions against some of Samsung and Motorola's products in the Netherlands and Germany on the basis of some of these patents.

"A highly respected venue for patent litigation, [the High Court's] findings could well influence the German and Dutch courts."

Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, has described the smartphone patent wars as a "pain in the a--", but there seems little prospect of a truce.

Under Steve Jobs, who believed Android was a rip-off of Apple's iOS operating system, the company launched lawsuits against Google's manufacturing partners around the world, prompting many counter-suits.