Patents case lost, S3 less appealing to HTC

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Patents case lost, S3 less appealing to HTC

Patents behind HTC's interest in S3 Graphics? Taiwan's HTC reevaluating its purchase of S3 after it lost its patents suit against Apple.

Pichi Chuang/Reuters

A shop attendant arranges HTC phones in a mobile phone store in Taipei last week. Taiwan's HTC Corp, the world's No.4 smartphone maker, is reconsidering its purchase of S3 Graphics, after the latter lost its patents suit against Apple.

By Devindra Hardawar VentureBeat

Nov. 27, 2011, 12:28 p.m. ET

This isn鈥檛 a good week for听. After S3 had its patent dispute against Apple dismissed by the U.S. International Trade Commission earlier this week, the company鈥檚 suitor HTC is now having second thoughts about its union.

HTC said that it will 鈥渞eevaluate鈥� the $300 million S3 purchase,听鈥� a move that makes clear what the Taiwanese phone maker鈥檚 main interest in the company was, and shows just how quickly fortunes can shift in the dirty business of patent litigation.

S3 won a patent ruling against Apple back in July, which centered on the use of image compression technology in Mac OSX. Shortly after that, HTC, which itself is in the midst of battles over patent battles with Apple,听. But on Monday,听, which means HTC can no longer be certain about the superiority of S3鈥瞫 patents over Apple.

S3 could still appeal the decision, and it also has another ITC case against Apple in the works, but right now it鈥檚 clearly not a very appealing purchase for HTC.

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