Aussies certainly know a thing or two about patent disputes delaying product launches. It sucks. Now Americans are facing that fate with the HTC One X and Evo 4G LTE (the US-centric successor to the Evo 3D). They’ll be indefinitely delayed at US Customs for investigation of an Apple patent infringement. HTC explains:
“The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval.”
Though HTC is clearly confident, it’s unclear how easy the issue will be to clear up. The phones infringe a patent which covers automatically converting things like phone numbers and email addresses into actionable links that open a menu of options. How HTC will skirt that remains to be seen.