Apple’s multi-theatre patent war suffered a setback today, as a U.K judge ruled that HTC had not infringed on four of Apple’s E.U held patents.

The court also ruled that three of four patents being contested were invalid. These patents are related to slide-to-unlock, multitouch, and foreign language text input functionality.

Judge Christopher Floyd, who presided over the case, ruled that Apple’s photo management patent was valid however HTC was not infringing upon it.

“[This] marks a considerable defeat for Apple in the smartphone patent wars,” said Peter Bell, an attorney at Stevens & Bolton LLP, who isn’t involved in the case to Bloomberg. “Two of Apple’s prize patents have been knocked out in the U.K.”

In a statement to the press, and HTC spokesperson said: “We remain disappointed that Apple continues to favor competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace,” but was pleased with the ruling.

“We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours,” Apple countered.

Apple has not announced whether it will take this case to the U.K court of Appeal.