HTC has had quite the debacle with their new smartphones, the HTC EVO 4G LTE and the HTC One X. Recently, the phones got held up at customs due to potentially infringing on an Apple patent. The Taiwanese company was under fire from the tech giant last year due to this same thing. Back in December, Apple won an exclusion order for any HTC devices that infringed on the patent, which has to do with converting things such as email addresses and phone numbers into actionable links that open a menu of options.
To fix this problem and prevent any of their name devices from being banned, they simply had to modify the software. HTC needed an extension and had the ban delayed, but it went into effect April 19th. It wasn’t clear whether they weren’t infringing on Apple’s patent or not, hence the two smartphones being held up at customs to further review.
The good news is that HTC has apparently complied as the HTC EVO 4G LTE has been cleared from customs and is headed to Sprint stores nationwide as we speak. This is especially great news for those who pre-ordered the device and were disappointed when it got held up. Pre-orders are excepted to arrive on or around May 24th.
Being that the EVO 4G LTE has been released from customs, it would be safe to assume that the HTC One X will be soon as well, then again you never know. Apple’s lawsuit also applies to all devices that HTC makes so it wouldn’t be surprising to see other smartphones and tablets being held up.