Taiwan's HTC boosts patent bank; not worried over disputes

The head of Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp, embroiled in patent battles with Apple Inc and others, said his company had completed the purchase of U.S. graphics chipmaker S3 Graphics, arming itself with more than 200 patents.

Patent spats with Apple forced HTC to delay the launch of one of its flagship devices in the United States, once its biggest market, and modify others to comply with a ruling by the International Trade Commission (ITC). Apple has since filed at least two other complaints, including one last week alleging HTC was still infringing the patent and demanding emergency action against 29 of its devices.

But HTC CEO Peter Chou dismissed concerns that such disputes have any long-term impact on the company, arguing that investors and analysts misunderstood the situation.

"Patent lawsuits haven't caused any actual damage to HTC," he said in an interview on Wednesday. "Only the Street is worried for us, we're not worried ourselves. We hope the disputes will get more reasonable in the future."

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HTC Titan review: Huge is the new big

One big scary smartphone, the HTC Titan. Visible from space. Oh well, a little exaggeration won't hurt. But as far as we can tell, they certainly wanted it big enough to see from Finland.

Microsoft have a thing going on up north that they want to explore. But old-time partners HTC won't take the cold shoulder. They are honoring their part of the agreement and making a big statement.

The size of the Titan aside, the message HTC are sending is loud and clear. Nokia will be instrumental in shaping the future, essential to fulfilling the vision of a third ecosystem. But here we are, delivering here and now.

HTC Titan

The Titan is among the first WP7 Mango phones to make it to the market. It’s the biggest too – and likely to stay this way for quite a while. And although it feels good to think HTC were keen to show to newly-fledged allies Nokia what’s what, the size of the phone is more than just muscle flexing.

Many upgraders will be looking at the Titan and the bigger screen is the right thing to show them. Otherwise the doubters would’ve been right to ask: why Titan and not a Mango-running HD7. But the display is not the only upgrade over last year’s Windows Phone flagship.

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