Judge rules in favour of Apple over patent that's at 'the core of Android'

Back in December, the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled against Apple in a '263 patent infringement case the Cupertino-based company had filed against HTC, but found the Taiwanese vendor guilty of infringing a lesser "Data Detectors" patent.

Naturally, Apple appealed the former decision.

This week, United States Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner has overruled the ITC decision on the '263 patent in favour of Apple, which could spell trouble for both HTC and Android as a whole.

The technology covered by the patent in question - the use of real-time APIs - is said to be at "the core" of all Android-powered devices, meaning a simple UI or hardware change won't be sufficient to avoid legal trouble.

"I therefore construe 'realtime application program interface' in claim 1 of the '263 patent to mean an 'API that allows realtime interaction between two or more sub-systems'," Posner said.

Apple also contends that Google VP Andy Rubin began his career at Apple as a low-level engineer, and worked on the exact technology covered by the '263 patent.

By the looks of things, then, the patent wars between Apple and the various Android licensees aren't going to end any time soon.