With the US International Trade Commission (ITC) having recently ruled that a user interface in some of the HTC handsets has been found to be violating one of Apple’s patents, a technical workaround to circumvent the verdict has already been worked out by HTC.

Talking about the feature in question, HTC Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou said during the course of a media briefing at HTC’s Taoyuan, Taiwan headquarters that the feature is “actually quite rarely used” in HTC handsets. Chou also said that HTC will maintain its association with Google in order to “protect” itself.

The same press event had Android founder Andy Rubin – Senior VP of Google’s mobile division – stating that the ITC ruling in the Apple-HTC patent lawsuit will likely mark the commencement of a period of settling patent disputes in the coming years.

The assurance from HTC that the patent lawsuit verdict does not underscore any substantial damage, the shares of the company witnessed an increase by the maximum allowed for a second session on Wednesday.

Noting that HTC’s patent scuffle with Apple had “pressured” the HTC stock for some time, analyst Jeff Pu, at Fubon Securities Investment Services, said: “Now that the ruling is out, HTC has some breathing space. We believe the possibility of a continued rise is quite high.”