The International Trade Commission has pushed back the date to issue a final determination in a closely watched patent case between Apple Inc. and HTC Corp. by five days, to Dec. 19.
No reason for the delay was given in the Federal Register notice announcing the change. It’s the second time the ITC’s six commissioners have moved back their deadline to review the initial decision by Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski. The commissioners were originally slated to release their final determination on Dec. 6.
Charneski on July 15 found that HTC violated two of Apple’s patents, setting the stage for the ITC to issue an exclusion order banning HTC’s infringing phones, as previously reported here.
Patent analyst Florian Mueller in his blog Foss Patents didn't see much significance in the delay. "I recommend not to read anything into this," he wrote. "It doesn’t bode well or good for any party. The ITC has a huge workload these days, and this is a case involving four distinct patents.”
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