HTC to Appeal U.S. Agency Ruling on Apple Patent Infringements

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- HTC Corp. will appeal a U.S. International Trade Commission ruling that it infringed two patents of Apple Inc. in producing Android-based mobile phones.

HTC, Asia’s second-largest maker of smartphones, said it was found to have infringed two of 10 Apple patents originally asserted in the case. Administrative Law Judge Carl Charneski’s finding yesterday is subject to review by the full six-member commission in Washington.

HTC will “vigorously fight these two remaining patents through an appeal before the ITC commissioners who make the final decision,” Grace Lei, general counsel for the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company, said in an e-mail. HTC will use “all means possible” to defend itself, it said in a separate statement.

Should the commission uphold the finding, the ITC may ban U.S. imports of some HTC phones that run on Google Inc.’s Android, the most popular smartphone operating system in the U.S. The HTC decision may serve as a barometer for other cases Cupertino, California-based Apple has against makers of Android devices, including Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.

“This isn’t the worst-case scenario for HTC, which was found not to violate the other eight patents,” said Michael On, president of Taipei-based Beyond Asset Management Co., who doesn’t own the company’s shares. “They will probably resolve the issue by paying royalties, which will raise costs.” He declined to disclose the size of his assets.

‘Alternate Solutions’

The ITC is a quasi-judicial arbiter of trade complaints that has become the venue of choice for resolving patent disputes. Nokia Oyj, which had been targeted in the same ITC complaint, reached a settlement with Apple last month. Mountain View, California-based Google wasn’t a party in the case.

An Apple spokeswoman, Kristin Huguet, declined to comment on the HTC findings.

HTC believes it has “alternate solutions” for issues raised by Apple, according to today’s statement. “We look forward to resolving this case.”

HTC shares fell 2.4 percent to close at NT$907 in Taipei trading yesterday before the ruling. The stock has risen 0.8 percent this year, compared with a 4.4 percent decline in the benchmark Taiex index.

One of the patents in the HTC case involved data-detection technology used in e-mail and text messages, while another related to a data-transmission system.

Flyer Tablet

Apple earlier this month accused HTC in a separate complaint of infringing five patents related to software architecture and user interfaces, hardware for touch screens and movement sensors. Apple is seeking to block U.S. imports of the Taiwanese company’s new Flyer tablet computers as well as its Droid Incredible, Wildfire, EVO 4G and Desire phones.

HTC released the Flyer, its first tablet device, in the U.S. in March, competing against Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. The Flyer has a 7-inch screen and uses Android.

Android is the most popular smartphone operating system in the U.S., accounting for 38 percent of the market in the three months ended May, according to Reston, Virginia-based researcher ComScore Inc. Apple’s iOS, used in devices including the iPhone, made up 27 percent of the market.

S3 Graphics Acquired

HTC agreed last week to buy S3 Graphics Co. for $300 million after the maker of video-game graphics chips won an infringement ruling at the trade agency against Apple. HTC also has its own patent complaint against Apple at the commission, with findings scheduled to be released Sept. 16.

HTC and Apple more than doubled revenue from mobile phones from a year earlier in the March quarter as they race to offer their products in more markets around the globe. Apple, once best known for its Mac computers, now relies on its iPhone for about 50 percent of sales and the iPad tablet for 12 percent, according to first-quarter figures compiled by Bloomberg.

The case is In the Matter Of Certain Personal Data and Mobile Communications Devices and Related Software, 337-710, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).

--With assistance from Susan Decker in Washington and Adam Satariano in San Francisco. Editors: James Regan, Jim McDonald

Latest Harry Potter film enchants audiences, breaks records

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” was busy smashing records even before the sun rose
.

With 3,800 locations screening the midnight showing of the final installment of the Potter franchise, the movie netted $43.5 million in its first three hours of release.

That number crushed the previous record held by “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” which recorded $30 million in midnight earnings in 2010. The vampire series “Twilight” is based on the books by Stephenie Meyer.

The “Harry Potter” films, of course, also have a literary predecessor. The films are based on the best-selling books by J.K. Rowling. All told, the “Potter” films have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide since the release of the first movie, “Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone” in 2001.

The scene outside of the AMC 24 at Quail Springs Mall, 2501 W Memorial Road, on Thursday evening was filled with fans dressed as their favorite characters.

The line into the theater wound its way from the ticket line in the food court all the way up to the third floor of the mall.

Quail Springs AMC showed the movie on all 24 screens, and a theater employee said every theater sold out for the midnight showing.

With the movie's opening-weekend projections targeted at $150 million, “Deathly Hallows: Part 2” may fall just short of the record for all-time best opening weekend. “The Dark Knight,” which starred Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, rocketed to $158 million the weekend of July 18, 2008.

LIC Housing Finance plans to launch Rs 500-cr fund in Sept

LIC Housing Finance Ltd plans to launch a Rs 500-crore venture capital (VC) fund for urban infrastructure development by September, according to its director and chief executive officer, V K Sharma.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the company’s property exhibition here today, he said LIC Housing Finance had already started the process for launching the fund. The company is also planning to launch a pure fixed rate housing loan product.


LIC Housing Finance would raise interest rates if the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increases its key policy rates. “The increase in interest rates is squeezing our margin. We did not increase the rates when the central bank revised these last time. We are waiting for the RBI guidance and if the rates are increased again, we also have to go for a rate hike,” said Sharma. It had increased its interest rates by 25 basis points twice in the recent past, in March and June, following the interest rate hikes by RBI.

Sharma said there would not be more than two upward revision in interest rates in future. However, he expressed hopes that the rates would come down after that.
The current interest rate of LIC Housing Finance is around 10.15 per cent for loans up to Rs 20 lakh and around 10.75 per cent for loans above that, on floating rate basis.
The company is expecting a net interest margin of 2.7-2.8 per cent this financial year. It has a nine per cent market share in the country’s housing finance business and is expecting a 25 per cent overall growth this financial year. It is also looking at a loan disbursement of Rs 5,500 crore in southern states, compared to Rs 4,125 crore in the previous financial year, according to Sharma

Citigroup Estimates It Has $22 Billion at Risk in Five European Countries

Citigroup Inc. (C), the third-biggest U.S. bank, estimated it has at least $22 billion in loans, trading assets and other “exposures” to Greece,Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland.
The net figure includes $13 billion in so-called funded exposure as of June 30, mostly in the form of credit to financial institutions and companies, according to an earnings presentation today on the New York-based firm’s website. Sovereign entities account for “a little more than” $1 billion of that amount, it said.
The remaining $9 billion is unfunded exposure, mainly to international companies based in the five countries, where Citigroup provides settlement and clearing services, according to the presentation. Estimates were based on the firm’s internal risk measures, it said.
“Our exposure to the businesses and the sovereigns in those countries certainly is appropriate given our size, our stature and our business model,” Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach, 57, told reporters today on a conference call.
Citigroup, led by Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, tumbled 5.3 percent in New York Stock Exchange trading on July 11 as concern mounted that Europe’s debt crisis may engulf Italy, which has the region’s second-highest borrowings.
The bank previously disclosed $12.3 billion in loans to Italian customers at the end of 2010, including banks and public entities, and a further $18.4 billion in legally binding “commitments.” This figure doesn’t include so-called hedges, when an investor makes a bet to protect against potential loss on an existing position. The company hadn’t made detailed disclosures on the five countries since then.

Gross Exposure

Pandit and Gerspach declined to tell analysts in a separate conference call what the bank’s gross exposure to the five countries was, not including hedges. In response to questions from Michael Mayo, an analyst at Credit Agricole SA in New York, Gerspach said the figure was irrelevant while Pandit defended the bank’s hedges and risk-management approach.
“If Europe turns into a real problem, the net exposure guidance or disclosure you gave isn’t going to give investors any comfort whatsoever,” Michael Holton, an analyst with Boston Co. Asset Management LLC, said on the call. “I would encourage you to give the gross exposure at some point if you’re not going to do it today.”
In addition to the $22 billion, Citigroup said it has money at risk to retail customers and small businesses through locally funded lending. Most of that is through Citi Holdings, a division that contains businesses tagged for sale, and is focused on Greece and Spain, it said.

Maintaining Relationships

“We fully expect to maintain our long-standing relationships” in the five countries, Citigroup wrote in the presentation.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) reported yesterday that its outstanding loans and contracts to the five countries total about $15 billion. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, 55, said the amount “bounces around by several billion” after taxes and taking into account hedges against that risk. In the worst-case scenario, the bank may lose about $3 billion, he said.
“We’ve not dramatically reduced those exposures,” Dimon said. “We’re still doing a lot of business in Europe.”
Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, said in a May regulatory filing that it has $16.9 billion at risk in the five countries as of March 31.
Citigroup today reported second-quarter net income of $3.34 billion, a 24 percent increase from a year earlier that beat analysts’ estimates, as it earned more from investment-banking fees and reduced losses tied to troubled assets.