Recently, HTC borrowed five patents from Google to try and fight against Apple's lawsuits with their own countersuit, but as it turns out, they won't be able to use them in their battle after-all. Administrative Law Judge Thomas Pender, of the ITC, ruled that HTC can not use the borrowed patents from Google to take on Apple's products, because they haven't properly acquired the necessary rights to do so. Because of this, only three of the original eight patents are usable in HTC's second ITC action against Apple.
Apparently, the problem was that Google didn't assign the patents to HTC properly. This opened up a vulnerability that could hurt HTC's case against Apple. Still, even though this takes some of the power out of HTC's case, it only takes a ruling that one of those remaining three patents was violated for HTC to potentially turn things around. And the drama continues...
Thanks for the tip, nikecar!
Source: Engadget