Apple Wins Patent Victory Over Android, but Does It Matter?

Apple was just handed potentially its biggest victory yet in its ongoing patent lawsuits with Google Android. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled today that Android devices that display phone numbers in a specific way should be banned for violating Apple’s patents. The ruling potentially bans phones like the HTC EVO 4G, Droid Incredible and T-Mobile G2, starting in the spring of 2012.

The parts of the patents the ITC refers to deal with how the phone interprets a phone number in unstructured documents (like the text of an email) and then automatically making that text clickable with a link that launches the phone’s dialer app. The ITC ruled that any HTC phones that use the feature were violating Apple’s “data tapping” patent.

The ruling effectively bans HTC from selling those devices beginning April 19, 2012, although units sold before then will be unaffected, and HTC will be able to import refurbished products in order to honor warranties on those phones until December 19, 2013.

HTC, however, may end up being completely unaffected if it can develop a software workaround that doesn’t violate Apple’s patents, or simply remove the feature via an update. HTC appears to be opting for the latter solution. In an emailed statement, the company told Mashable, “We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it. However, the ‘647 patent is a small UI experience, and HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon.”

It may be a small part of the experience, but as Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents observes, it’s a feature the smartphone-buying public has come to expect. Removing it puts HTC at a competitive disadvantage.

The ruling is a big symbolic victory for Apple, since it deals with how Android itself works, not actually software specific to HTC. It also theoretically gives Apple free reign to go after any Android manufacturer it cares to with the same patent.

However, the president can veto the ruling within 60 days, though it’s an option that’s rarely used, says Nilay Patel at The Verge.

Would the absence of the feature ? phone numbers in the text of emails or other documents that link to a smartphone’s dialer ? make you choose Apple over Android? Or is this small potatoes? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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