ITC investigates another Apple complaint against HTC

THE PATENT BATTLE between HTC and Apple continues as the US International Trade Commission (ITC) has announced that it will investigate another complaint by Apple alleging various patent infringements by HTC.

Apple filed a second complaint on 8 July with the ITC over unspecified HTC devices, which will now be investigated further. The devices include Taiwan based HTC's Flyer tablet, according to Bloomberg.

The ITC said, "The products at issue in this investigation are hardware and software used in a variety of portable electronic devices, including mobile communication equipment."

HTC is unlikely to wave the white flag any time soon, though. Grace Lei, general counsel at HTC said, "HTC respects intellectual property and will continue to protect and defend its protected innovations. We will fully cooperate with the ITC's investigation and look forward to showing that we are not in violation of any of Apple's patents."

The alleged infringement could relate to the Flyer's design because it has an aluminium body much like the fruit themed firm's Ipad 2. The Flyer is a somewhat smaller device, though, with a 7in screen compared to the Ipad 2's 9.7in.

The complaint refers to five patents related to software and user interfaces found on HTC's Flyer tablet and its smartphones. The case will be reviewed by the US trade agency, which has the ability to block imports of the devices.

Last month a judge approved two out of twelve claims made by Apple but HTC seemed relaxed about the outcome. Then Last week HTC sued the cappuccino company in Britain following a back and forth legal battle between the two electronics giants.

Earlier, the ITC ruled that Apple had infringed patents in Mac OS X related to S3 graphics texture compression. µ