Apple Wins Ruling in HTC Patent Dispute (AAPL, GOOG)

The US International Trade Commission has issued a ruling in a suit brought by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) against Taiwan’s HTC Corp., maker of smartphones that use the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). The ITC has upheld Apple’s claim that a particular feature used on HTC’s phones infringes Apple’s patent.

The feature in question allows users to tap once on the smartphone display to place a call to a phone number embedded in an email or text message. The same feature also allows users to add appointments to their calendars by tapping on a message with a date in it.

A more far-reaching claim by Apple was denied in the ruling. The ITC reversed a decision that would have allowed Apple’s claim related to the internal software organization of a mobile device.

HTC has already said that it will remove the offending code and does not expect the change to affect many phones. Most Apple-watchers see the patent fights with HTC and other handset makers that use the Android operating system as Apple’s proxy war with Google.