So it was announced yesterday that the ITC ruled in favor of Apple with regards to the patent for technology that allows you to click on a phone number in a text or email to initiate a call. HTC has already announced that they will be adapting its features to comply. When a phone number appears in an email, clicking on it will no longer generate a menu that allows the user the choice to save the phone number in their contacts, dial the number, or send a text message to it. Instead, HTC said it would give them only the option of dialing the number.
The ruling was a partial victory for Apple because the commission overruled an earlier decision in Apple's favor in the case, involving a different, more technical patent related to how software is organized internally on mobile devices. Legal experts say that it would have been difficult for HTC to adapt their devices to avoid infringing that patent.
The patent that was ruled in Apple's favor was awarded to them back in 1996, when it pertained only to computers.
A patent analyst believes that Apple will be unlikely to settle for a royalty agreement with their Android rivals, as they have the most to lose from the rise of Android. In the third quarter of 2011, phones running the Android operating system accounted for 52.5 percent of devices sold worldwide, up from 25.3 percent in the period of 2010. In the same period, Apple's market share fell to 15 percent, from 16.6 percent.