Thanks to a tip from a fan, OhMyGov is reporting...
Last week the US Customs and Border Protection, a branch of theDepartment of Homeland Security, created some online controversy by locking down all HTC EVO 4G LTE and HTC One X mobile devices as the agency investigates if the devices are still breaking Apple patents.
The US Customs investigation dates back to an order by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) last December that found HTC guilty of violatingApple patent 5946647 - a patent related to detecting data items within otherwise unformatted content. However, it appears that the patent wars have just started.
In the past few days tech savvy Twitter users have been airing out their frustration with Customs and Border Protection, creating much buzz around the otherwise unnoticed agency. Campaigns were started on Twitter using the hashtags #FreemyEVO and #CBPevo, encouraging agency to release the phones.
Mentions to the US Customs Twitter handle, @CustomsBorder, were up 9,900% yesterday over Thursday because of the lock down, skyrocketing from 26 mentions to 2,600. Unfortunately for @CustomsBorder, most of the mentions express frustration with the agency versus praise.
So, YES, we were noticed.. just in case you wondered :)
