The biggest mobile device manufacturers have been filing patent infringement lawsuits against each other rather consistently for the past couple of years, and a few cases managed to stand out of the crowd these past few months.  Among them is the on-going battle between Apple and Samsung. The former claims that the Taiwanese phonemaker infringed two of its patents, and established intentions to ban Samsung from being able to sell its phones in the U.S.

A similar request concerning only Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been denied in Australia in October, but this time Samsung’s biggest market is at stake. The case’s significance is amplified by the fact that the six-member panel in Washington will be deciding the outcome of an appeal on an IT decision that already sided Apple once on the patent infringement.

“In the worst case scenario for HTC, the trade commission could ban the import of its Android phones at the height of the holiday selling season, and its 25% U.S. smartphone market share could shrink to 0.0%,” writes Forbes.

The ITC can impose import bans but it can’t award monetary damages. If Apple wins this case, it could offer to license the technology to HTC or, more likely, sue HTC for damages in federal court.”

This may be the worst case scenario for HTC, but this specific lawsuit has the potential to impact all the other Android manufacturers. The two patent infringements in question concern components of the Android OS itself, rather than just HTC hardware.

While the two biggest players in the smartphone market battle it out, RIM is facing a local legal mess overseas. Indonesian authorities are reportedly considering to charge outgoing country director Andrew Cobham and a number of other RIM execs over negligence due to a promotional event that got out of hand.