Apple emerged as the winner in the patent case against Taiwanese-based firm HTC which means that the company was triumphant in placing a ban against "offending smartphones" in the U.S. starting April 9, 2012.

The International Trade Commission (ITC) granted a part of what Apple claimed as a "limited exclusion order" against HTC. This means that HTC needs to remove some of the features included in their smartphones like touching a smartphone screen in order to follow a Web link or calling a phone number displayed on a page. The ITC also mentioned that this ruling only applies to new phone imports and it does not mean that HTC should pull out their smartphones that are already sold in U.S. stores. HTC could import refurbished phones in order to fulfill warranties or insurance contracts through Dec. 19, 2013. This decision is already considered as "final" and it is already for review by the staff of US President Barack Obama.

In the complaint filed by Apple last July, HTC supposedly violated four Apple patents. Carl Charneski, the Judge for Administrative Law said that HTC only violated two of the patents mentioned in the complaint. The patents that were violated included the data-detection feature and covering the transmission of multiple types of data. He also said that the other two patents (writing and executing of software programs) were not infringed. Apple also indicated the specific HTC phones recommended for blocking in their original complaint. The HTC phones recommended for blocking in the U.S. included Nexus One, Touch Pro, Diamond, Tilt II, Dream, myTouch, Hero and Droid Eris.

This patent case is part of the growing battle between Apple and Google's Android mobile operating system. High Tech Computer Corp. also known as HTC is a Taiwanese-based mobile phone manufacturer and it is also a major manufacturer of Android-based smartphones. Apple has long accused Android of violating several of their patents and Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple even accused Android as being "ripped off the iPhone, wholesale". Through this ruling, Apple has already experienced a small victory over this patent battle. Microsoft has also stepped out to accuse Android of violating several of their patented technology.