A federal agency ruled on Monday that a set of important features commonly found in smartphones are protected by an Apple patent, a decision that could force changes in how Google ’s Android phones function. 
 
 The ruling, by the United States International Trade Commission, is one of the most significant so far in a growing array of closely watched patent battles being waged around the globe by nearly all of the major players in the mobile industry. These fights reflect the heated competition among the companies, especially as Android phones gain market share. 
 
 At the heart of the disputes are the kind of small but convenient features that would cause many people to complain if they were not in their smartphones. For example, the case decided Monday involves the technology that lets you tap your finger once on the touch screen to call a phone number that is written inside an e-mail or text message. It also involves the technology that allows you to schedule a calendar appointment, again with a single tap of the finger, for a date mentioned in an e-mail. 
 
 HTC, the defendant in the case and a Taiwan-based mobile phone maker using the Android system, said in a statement after the ruling that it would adapt its features to comply with the court’s decision. The company called them “small” parts of the user’s experience. 
 
 The ruling was only a partial victory for Apple because the commission overruled an earlier decision in Apple’s favor in the case, involving a different, more technical patent related to how software is organized internally on mobile devices. It would have been hard for HTC to adapt its devices to avoid infringing that patent, legal experts said. 
 
 The decision could potentially affect far more phones than those made by HTC because the underlying target of the suit is Google, creator of the Android system that now powers more than half of all smartphones sold worldwide. Apple is suing several other makers of Android devices, as is Microsoft, and companies that make Android products are returning the favor in most instances through countersuits. 
 
 “It’s an important victory for Apple, but it’s just one of many battles,” said Alexander Poltorak, chief executive of the General Patent Corporation, an intellectual property strategy firm, adding that the ruling will pressure other Android phone makers to license the technology from Apple or make changes to avoid patent infringement issues. 
 
 The ruling by the six-member commission, which can take action against unfair trade practices by companies whose products are imported into the United States, will prevent HTC from selling phones in the United States that infringe the patent starting April 19. 
 
 To take effect, President Obama’s trade representative must sign the order. He could decide to overrule the commission’s finding, though such actions are rare. It also can be appealed. 
 
 Apple has also sued HTC in federal court accusing it of patent infringement, while HTC has filed suits of its own against Apple with the trade commission and in federal court. 
 
 The patent battles reflect the intense competition in the smartphone market. In the third quarter of 2011, phones running the Android system accounted for 52.5 percent of devices sold worldwide, up from 25.3 percent in the period of 2010. Apple’s share of this market fell to 15 percent, from 16.6 percent, in the same period. 
 
 Apple’s late chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, was outspoken in saying that Google had improperly copied many of the iPhone’s innovations, telling his biographer that he was going to “destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.” 
 
 After the ruling on Monday, Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, said, “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” 
 
 Grace Lei, HTC’s general counsel, said in a statement that the company was happy the commission ruled against Apple on other patents involved in the case. “We are very pleased with the determination and we respect it,” Ms. Lei said. 
 
 A Google spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 The growing complexity of mobile devices has greatly expanded the range of patents that can be used as weapons in the business, and their robust sales have made them a lucrative target. 
 
 Florian Mueller, an intellectual property analyst in Germany and author of a popular blog on patents estimates that the number of patent lawsuits related to the mobile business worldwide is approaching 100. 

 Apple's victory over smartphone maker HTC may not mean its handsets will be banned from the U.S. market. The WSJ's Deborah Kan and Taipei reporter Paul Mozur discuss. 
 
 Apple Inc. was handed a legal victory that is bad news for rival Google Inc., as a U.S. trade agency ruled that some HTC Corp. smartphones that use the Internet company's Android software infringe an Apple patent. 
 
 Enlarge Image Close Bloomberg News HTC said it would soon remove an infringing feature from its phones. Above, shoppers view HTC phones in a Taipei, Taiwan, store last week. 
 
 The U.S. International Trade Commission on Monday ordered HTC by April to stop importing handsets that infringe the patent. The Taiwanese company said it would remove the feature found to violate Apple's patent, a move that should avoid disruption to its U.S. business. 
 
 Apple is tangling over intellectual property with multiple competitors around the world, in large part seeking to hobble rivals using Android-powered smartphones from taking a larger share of the business. The long-awaited ruling by the ITC is one of the first high-profile decisions in Apple's home market. 
 
 Related News Crowded Market Poses Threat to HTC 
 
 The ITC's decision narrowed an earlier finding that HTC was infringing multiple claims of two separate patents. Instead, it found that some HTC smartphones using Android violated only two claims of one Apple patent related to extracting information such as phone numbers from emails and doing something with the information, such as making a phone call. That invention, sometimes described as covering "data tapping," allows users to grab data embedded in an unstructured form, like an address, and use it in another phone application, such as mapping. 
 
 It wasn't clear how many HTC smartphones use the infringing technology. Grace Lei, the company's general counsel, said in a statement that the ruling involved a "small" user-interface feature and "HTC will completely remove it from all of our phones soon." 
 
 An Apple spokeswoman said "competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours." 
 
 The decision comes as HTC and Apple are tussling in a number of courts as they battle over their shares of the growing smartphone market. Apple's taking its fight to other Android handset makers, too, many of which are retaliating. 
 
 Apple and Samsung Electronics Co. also have filed cases against each other with the ITC seeking to bar the other from selling their products. 
 
 A spokesman for Google declined to comment. 
 
 Apple leads the market in the U.S., with 28.6% of the country's consumer smartphone subscribers in the three-month period ending in October, ahead of HTC, which had just over 20%, according to Nielsen. But Android devices, which often use email, maps and other features from Apple rival Google, pose a growing threat to the Cupertino, Calif., company and together have a greater share of the U.S. smartphone software market than the iPhone. 
 
 Despite the narrowing of the patent claims, some experts said the ITC decision was an important victory for Apple. 
 
 Alexander Poltorak, chairman and CEO of Suffern, N.Y.-based General Patent Corp., which advise companies on their patent strategies, says the decision "validates that the Android operating system has implemented a number of inventions from Apple." He predicted that the decision would "go a long way" in convincing HTC to consider a global patent settlement with Apple. 
 
 An HTC spokeswoman declined additional comment. 
 
 Write to Jessica E. Vascellaro at jessica.vascellaro@wsj.com
– Apple scored a victory today in its lawsuit against smartphone-maker HTC, the New York Times reports. A US trade commission ruled that HTC will have to tweak some functions on its US smartphones in order to avoid patent infringement. The ruling, which can be appealed, involves technology that allows you to tap on a phone number or a date in an email to call someone or add an appointment to your calendar. HTC says it will change the software before the ruling kicks in on April 19, the Wall Street Journal reports. The ruling also worked against Apple, overturning an earlier decision about how HTC organized software in its phones. The Taiwanese company would have had to work harder to avoid infringing on that patent. But HTC is just a drop in the legal bucket for Apple: Its ultimate target is Google, which made the Android system that runs on more than half of the world's smartphones. In fact Steve Jobs once vowed "to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product."