The U.S. International Trade Commission was set to issue a ruling in Apple’s patent battle with HTC on December 6, but pushed that back to December 14. Now the agency is delaying its ruling yet again, bumping it back to Monday, December 19.
Following a complaint from Apple, an ITC Judge ruled HTC’s Android-based smartphones violate two of the company’s patents. The twice-delayed hearing was set to issue a final ruling after a full commission review.
HTC patent infringement ruling delayed again
Word of the new delay comes courtesy of HTC, according to the Wall Street Journal, and not from the ITC.
Assuming the original ruling is upheld, the ITC must then decide whether or not to grant Apple’s request to block HTC smartphone sales in the U.S.
The ITC hasn’t offered any reason for the new delay, so there isn’t any way of knowing whether or not it’s good news or bad news for HTC. Considering the agency’s heavy case load, however, it’s also possible that the ruling date was pushed back simply because of manpower constraints.
Apple has not commented on the delay.