Apple has filed a counterclaim against HTC that accuses the Taiwanese smartphone maker of abusing its standards essential patents and failure to offer fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing terms. This particular action is in response to a claim filed against Apple by HTC. In Apple's filing, it says HTC used legal trickery to sue it over patent violations while at the same time refusing to license those patents in compliance with FRAND. In particular, Apple accuses HTC of breach of contract based on standards-related misconduct; fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud; promissory estoppel; conspiracy under statute 1 of the Sherman Act (relating to cartels); violation of statue 2 of the Sherman Act (relating to monopolies); violation of 15 U.S.C. statue 8 (illegal restraint of import trade); and violation of Virginia state antitrust law. HTC joins Samsung and Motorola in the short list of companies accused of abusing standards essential patents. These particular patents pertain to LTE/4G technologies.


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