HTC versus Apple ruling is delayed

TAIWANESE SMARTPHONE MAKER HTC has revealed that the final ruling on its lawsuit against Apple has been delayed, but only 'til next week.

The final ruling due to be delivered by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) will be handed down on 19 December, according to a statement from HTC seen by Reuters. If the ITC rules in HTC's favour then Apple could face a pre-Christmas ban on sales of its hardware.

An HTC official told Reuters that the ITC did not give a reason for the delay of the ruling, which has already been postponed once.

The decision should have been delivered on 14 December, which would have been good for HTC but bad for Apple, which would have missed out on almost two weeks of pre-Christmas shopping.

Then, like now, there is little information about the delay and the ITC merely posted a notice on its web site.

We have asked both firms to comment. µ