It’s looking like big brother Google is stepping in to help out HTC in its current patent battle with Apple. At a Google mobile conference in Tokyo, executive chariman Eric Schmidt seemed confident that HTC would somehow pull out a win against Apple, despite the fact that a judge approved Apple’s ITC import ban request.
“We have seen an explosion of Android devices entering the market and, because of our successes, competitors are responding with lawsuits as they cannot respond through innovations,” said Schmidt. “I’m not too worried about this.”
Judge Carl Charneski’s decision that HTC is in violation of Apple patents has some widespread consequences for Android phones in general. By extension, any Android phones with the same technology described in those two patents are vulnerable to an attack from Apple.
Schmidt wasn’t altogether clear about how exactly Google plans to aid HTC, reports ZDNet Asia. Schmidt was asked how Google would respond should the Taiwanese phone maker lose this battle, namely whether or not Google would provide financial support to a defeated HTC. Schmidt responded by saying, “we will make sure they don’t lose, then.”
[via CNET]