Apple, HTC Beat Smartphone Import Challenge in Patent Suit (1)

Apple Inc. and other tech companies can continue to import and sell their smartphone devices after the Federal Circuit ruled they don’t infringe a pair of INVT SPE LLC patents.

The International Trade Commission correctly found that Apple, HTC Corp., and ZTE Corp. didn’t violate US law by importing the devices because they don’t infringe INVT’s patents, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Wednesday in a precedential opinion.

INVT, a patent-holding company formerly owned by Panasonic Corp., originally sought an import ban on iPhones and other smartphones that are manufactured overseas and sold ...