One of the most handy features on my LG Android smartphone is the ability to look up numbers through the browser, tap them, and have them launch into the phone dialer. While this certainly isn’t the most impressive feature on my phone, I still am glad to have it.

Of course I may not have this option on my next Android phone purchase, thanks to Apple.

Apple has won a patent case against HTC in the US that deals with this “text scan for phone numbers” technology.

HTC has suggested they plan on removing the technology altogether from their phones in order to prevent the infringement. Although this case was only won against HTC, many other Android phone makers might follow suite to avoid an Apple lawsuit in the future.

Does winning this lawsuit against HTC really help Apple sell more phones? Not really. I highly doubt that users will abandon HTC based solely on the lack of this one feature. In the end it really just effects us end-users who are losing features simply because of very minor patent laws.

I understand the importance of protecting patents, but in such a small scenario it is hardly a big deal in my opinion. With Apple setting up lawsuits everywhere regarding its competing smartphones, I would expect us to lose even more features on Android (and even WP7) in the future.

Do I hate Apple for it? No, I like Apple and its products, I just wish they would take less aggressive measures when going after patents that largely won’t help them sell any more iPhones than they did before.

The post Apple Wins Patent Suite Against HTC appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

While Apple is embroiled in lawsuits against companies like Samsung and HTC, the iGiant is receiving its fair share of lawsuits from the other side. Aside from being countersued by rivals, including a new one filed yesterday by HTC that claims Apple violated patents, Apple is getting sued by ordinary everyday people too.

Remember when we found out that since the introduction of iOS 4 Apple had been secretly recording geolocation data on the iPhone and iPad 3G, and that location data was being stored in a secret file on your iPhone? Remember how this file was automatically being backed up onto your computer when you would sync up the phone with iTunes? Well, Apple responded by saying that the iPhone was not actually logging your location, but that it was, “maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested.”

Apple further responded with an update that reduced the size of the crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone, ceased backing up this cache, and deleted this cache when Location Services was turned off. Despite Apple maintaining that they were not and are not tracking the location of your iPhone, people were not satisfied.

In April the company was sued by Vikram Ajjampur, an iPhone user in Florida, and William Devito, a New York iPad customer, in federal court in Tampa, Florida. The lawsuit claimed Apple tracked its users without permission. According to their attorney, the plaintiffs are seeking to represent a group of U.S. customers in a class-action lawsuit against Apple. The lawyer said that about one-third to one-half of the country’s 60 million iPhone users could be part of the lawsuit. That would be a lot more than pocket change for Apple if the class-action lawsuit ends up coming to fruition.

To further add to Apple’s woes, in May a second lawsuit was filed in Puerto Rico. The lawsuit contended that Apple transmitted location data to third-party advertisers, and the company is currently facing six different charges, including fraud and abuse. The plaintiffs are asking for monetary damages. The lawsuit also leaves the possibily for other defendants to join in at a later date.

On top of these two potential threats, Apple is now facing trouble in South Korea. Earlier this year, a South Korean lawyer, Kim Hyung-suk, managed to win about $936 US based on the issue, but he’s not done yet. Kim has 27,000 signatures on petition seeking co-complainants for a class-action suit designed to “protect privacy rights.” The total cost of a ruling against Apple in South Korea would amount to around $24.6 million. Sounds like pennies to Apple, right? But Apple is facing those two lawsuits in the US which could potentially turn into class action lawsuits, and if the plaintiffs win, this could create a ripple effect that spreads into other countries with more and more consumers eager to cash in.

Apple is used to being on the other side of the fence, and suing anyone when it comes to protecting the company’s intellectual property, including one of their biggest suppliers like Samsung. If a class-action lawsuit takes off in the US and South Korea, Apple will have a lot more to worry about besides twisting the arms of Samsung and HTC.

[Photo from Business Insider]

The post South Korea Prepping for Major Class Action Lawsuit Against Apple appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

An eye for an eye makes the world go blind. Realistically, the exchange of lawsuits is really much the same kind of phenomenon. So basically, let’s just iron things out, get to a mutually agreeable resolution, and move along so we can continue making money from the masses.

That’s effectively the message that HTC chief financial officer Winston Yung has for Apple. He says that they “have to sit down and figure it out,” continuing on to say that HTC is, “open to having discussions… as long as the solution and the terms are fair and reasonable.”

Based on the ITC rulings in the past month, both parties have scored some minor victories. The US ITC said that Apple violates two S3 Graphics patents related to compression technology, and HTC has a confirmed deal to buy S3 Graphics. On the flip side, the same ITC also ruled that HTC infringes on two Apple patents for data detection and transmission technologies.

Can’t we all just get along? Let’s get Samsung into these talks, since they’re involved in a double-ended patent dispute with Cupertino too.

Image: TG Daily

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