For two years, Apple has told the world that phones running on Google’s Android operating system are iPhone rip-offs. Now Apple is about to learn whether a U.S. trade agency thinks its claims have merit.

The International Trade Commission is set to rule Wednesday in a patent complaint lodged by Apple against rival smartphone maker HTC Corp. The decision would mark the first final verdict from any judicial entity in Apple’s global patent war against HTC and fellow Android-phone makers Samsung and Motorola Mobility Holdings.

A ruling for Apple may lead to a ban on U.S. imports of HTC devices, derailing the Taoyuan, Taiwan, company’s trajectory from a small contract manufacturer founded in 1997 to the biggest U.S. smartphone seller in the third quarter. A victory for HTC may help it secure favorable terms in any settlement with Apple.

“In the past two years, HTC has emerged essentially from obscurity by promoting their own brand and high-end phones, and they’ve largely been able to do this by leveraging Android,” said Alex Spektor, an analyst with Strategy Analytics.

HTC generated about $5 billion in U.S. sales last year, according to a separate patent complaint it filed at the trade agency against Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple. That’s more than half of HTC’s $9.1 billion in global 2010 sales.

HTC sold 24 percent of the smartphones in the U.S. during the third quarter, ahead of Samsung’s 21 percent and Apple’s 20 percent, Canalys reported Oct. 31.

HTC’s Android phones, introduced in 2008, infuriated Steve Jobs, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the late Apple founder. Jobs made it his mission “to destroy Android,” which he said “ripped off the iPhone, wholesale,” according to the book.

The case is one of about a dozen before the commission related to the dispute over Android devices. Microsoft is fighting with Motorola Mobility and Barnes & Noble, while Apple has legal disputes with HTC, Samsung and Motorola Mobility around the world.