Apple’s 20 Patent Claims Could Mean Android Ban

Yesterday’s Apple’s legal action against HTC patent infringement seems to have wider scope, reaching out to Google Android and possibly all android phones.

Apple claims that HTC has infringed 20 of its patents that it had acquired for iPhone.

Apple, as always, has not included Google in the suit, many of the named patents but in reality, most are related to operating system processes. Which brings a clear indication that Apple is targeting Android.

Before even HTC responds, Google has publically supported HTC in the case:

“We are not a party to this lawsuit,” said a Google spokesperson. “However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.”

So the question is Why HTC? The fact is HTC was the first manufacturer to leverage Google’s OS and the market leader in Android, and recently Google branded Nexus One. Others have said that Apple’s action may be an opening salvo against Google.

“I think this is kind of an indirect lawsuit against Google,” analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers told Reuters. “Simply because Apple has focused on HTC now doesn’t mean it won’t take action against other manufacturers later”

Among the written disputes, apple highlights that “This case could have implications for all other phone manufacturers which have just announced their phones at Mobile World Congress.”

This means manufactures including Sony Ericcson, LG, Samsung and HTC could fall under the same umbrella.

Steve Jobs said: “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. “We’ve decided to do something about it.”

The Lawsuit has been filed with the US ITC and a district court in Delaware. With this, Apple is seeking to effectively bar HTC from selling phones that use the disputed technology in the US.

Earlier, Nokia sued Apple for patent infringement in October 2009, alleging it had stolen patented technology. In response, Apple countersued in December 2009, followed by a second round of legal action from Nokia.

All this could have some serious implications on Google Android. I hope Google would back all OHA partners with solid justifications, else it’s hard to see a future for Android. Android is a great OS, may it live forever.

If you wish to see all the patents, here’s the List:

Patent #7,362,331: Time-Based, Non-Constant Translation Of User Interface Objects Between States
Patent #7,479,949: Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics
Patent #7,657,849: Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image
Patent #7,469,381: List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display
Patent #5,920,726: System And Method For Managing Power Conditions Within A Digital Camera Device
Patent #7,633,076: Automated Response To And Sensing Of User Activity In Portable Devices
Patent #5,848,105: GMSK Signal Processors For Improved Communications Capacity And Quality
Patent #7,383,453: Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor
Patent #5,455,599: Object-Oriented Graphic System
Patent #6,424,354: Object-Oriented Event Notification System With Listener Registration Of Both Interests And Methods

Patent #5,481,721: Method for providing automatic and dynamic translation of object oriented programming language-based message passing into operation system message passing using proxy objects

Patents #5,519,867 and #6,275,983: Object Oriented Multitasking System and Object-Oriented Operating System
Patent #5,566,337: Method and apparatus for distributing events in an operating system
Patent #5,929,852: Encapsulated network entity reference of a network component system
Patent 5,946,647: System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data
Patent #5,969,705: Message protocol for controlling a user interface from an inactive application program
Patent #6,343,263: Real-time signal processing system for serially transmitted data
Patent #5,915,131: Method and apparatus for handling I/O requests utilizing separate programming interfaces to access separate I/O service
Patent #RE39,486: Extensible, replaceable network component system

[via BBC, all Patents via Google Patents]

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