The International Trade Commission (ITC), a powerful U.S. regulator, has rejected Apple's bid to get an emergency ban on all HTC phones. The Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker is accusing HTC of violating an existing exclusion order that has been in effect since December.

The ITC issued that ban after it concluded that HTC was infringing on an Apple patent that covers a system for detecting telephone numbers in emails for easy storing and calling without dialing. HTC claims to have removed all trace of the infringing software feature from its phones. Apple, however, filed a complaint last month alleging that HTC has been making inaccurate representations to customs officials in order to slide its phones past the import ban, i.e. the exclusion order.

The ITC said it was starting an investigation into the iPhone maker's claims, but for now it would not issue an emergency ban on all HTC units. "The commission finds that Apple has not demonstrated the propriety of temporary emergency action here," wrote the ITC. "The commission will not direct Customs to detain all subject HTC products because the commission does not have the information necessary to determine whether the respondents are currently violating the commission's limited exclusion order," added the Washington-based agency. "The facts recited by Apple in its submission do not conclusively demonstrate that HTC's representations were inaccurate at the time that they were made."

Meanwhile, HTC pledged that its mobile devices and software were redesigned to work around Apple's patent, and said the iPhone maker was adding legal arguments regarding infringement it had not alleged in the original case. "HTC confirmed that the notice was received, as an expected matter of process, and will vigorously defend its case," the company told Bloomberg News in an emailed statement on Monday, July.

HTC's new flagship smartphones, the One X and the EVO 4G LTE, were recently delayed at customs while officials checked the devices for the patent-infringing technology. The smartphones made in Taiwan were eventually allowed into the United States after HTC assured U.S. Customs and Border Protection that it had removed the infringing feature.

The case is In the Matter of Certain Personal Data and Mobile Communications Devices and Related Software, 337-710, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).