Taiwan’s leading smartphone maker HTC would appeal a ruling by a United States trade body which found that it had infringed two patents held by US giant Apple.
Apple filed a complaint against HTC in March 2010 with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) accusing the Taiwanese firm of violating ten patents related to the iPhone.
A preliminary finding on Friday reportedly said that HTC had violated two of the patents. HTC maintains none of the ten were infringed.
The ITC has already ruled in a separate case that Apple infringed on patents held by HTC subsidiary S3 Graphics, according to the Taiwanese company. As the legal battle between the rivals escalated, Apple filed a new compliant against HTC with the ITC on Monday involving patents related to iPads and iPhones. It has also lodged a suit against HTC in a US District Court in Delaware.
HTC touts its own brand of smartphones and makes handsets for a number of US companies, including the Nexus One unveiled by Apple rival Google. Patent lawsuits are a regular occurrence among technology giants.
