December 14 is the day for the major ITC ruling

ITC to decide Apple’s claim of Android rip-off - The Times of India

If gone in Apple's favor, it could seriously jeopardize HTC's financial health.

it would be great if HTC realizes that they can do well without the US market. 😕 its not like Nokia found it hard to survive without the sales in USA. they did extremely well.

But a ruling in Apple's favor may give Apple an advantage in similar cases pending against HTC and Samsung in other countries.

😕 Apple's patents and copyrights in usa are not relevant outside the us market. 😕

True. If that was to be the case Apple would be in an almost certain winning position as the judge may draw inference from the US case concerning the same patents. What I am saying is that if Apple wins the case, it will prove that HTC did infringe patent law in USA. This may play on the mind of the judge in some other country and a similar (not exact) case may tilt towards Apple's favor. The judge obviously can not be biased on the basis of another court case but the penalty that HTC could get (should they lose the case) may just get more stringent because HTC by then would be a party that has a history of prior patent infringement in some other country.