Apple Wins Patent Case Against Android. Well, Sort Of.

Steve Jobs vowed to go "thermonuclear" against Google and the Android interface. Today, the U.S. International Trade Commission (or "ITC") just helped Apple move one step closer to Jobs's dream of making the Android operating system a thing of the past.

Under a decision announced today by the ITC, Android phones made by HTC that incorporate "tapping" technology (more on that in a moment) will not be permitted to be imported into the United States starting on April 19, 2012.

What does that mean for HTC--one of the largest producers of Droid phones in the world? It's basic math:

No imports = no sales of most modern HTC Android devices in the U.S.

As I see it, HTC now has three choices: (i) license the technology from Apple (which is highly unlikely), (ii) make the technology work without using Apple's patented technology (somewhat likely), or (iii) remove the technology from HTC telephones (a possibility, but a last resort since it would make HTC's phone less feature-rich when compared to other Droid makers' phones).

The technology at issue is pretty standard fare on smart phones: it enables users to tap data in one application on a device (such as a telephone number embedded in an email), and bring up another application that uses that data (such as a telephone dialer that dials the telephone number that was tapped). Without that technology, users would have to resort to the cut-and-paste method of transferring data between applications on a smart phone. Ugh.

With all of the heavy competition among Droid phone makers, I'm pretty confident that HTC will kick its R&D department into high gear and figure out a way to use data tapping technology without violating Apple's patent. And I have no doubt that Google will throw its resources into the mix as well: after all, it is Android that were talking about.

The decision definitely gives Apple some boasting rights and, temporarily, forces Apple's competitors to spend time and money researching a workaround to their current product offerings. In the long run, I'm not sure that the decision will have a major impact on the Android product lines, since a workaround will almost certainly be developed (did I mention that Google will likely get involved??).

But in a world where new technology is being developed everyday, the delay that the decision imposed on Apple's competitors may be important. If Apple can leverage that delay to its advantage and come up with the "next great thing" while its competitors are still trying to figure out how to make the "old stuff" work, then the delay may be the most valuable prize of all.