Nokia Loses "Flagship" Patent Battle Against HTC


Nokia Loses

Bangalore: The Finnish manufacturer, Nokia has lost two patent suits against HTC, including one involving the use of Google Play on HTC’s Android devices. The District Court of Mannheim ruled that HTC was not guilty of infringing on two patents owned by Nokia.

The patent covered a “method for using services offered by a telecommunication network, a telecommunication system and a terminal for it” and HTC terms this as the “flagship patent” in the suit that alleges over 45 intellectual property violations by HTC, as per the reports of ZDNet.

Last December, BlackBerry, formerly known as RIM, settled with Nokia over a Wi-Fi patent, ending separate cases in various countries like U.S., UK and Canada, where as Nokia’s complaints against ViewSonic and HTC continued to trial.

In a statement on company’s website, HTC said that, “HTC respects the intellectual property rights of others, but believes that Nokia has exaggerated the scope of its patent in order to extract unwarranted licensing royalties from Android handset manufacturers.”

Adding to it, the company said, "HTC also believes that the '120 patent is invalid, and will continue with invalidity actions pending before the English Patents Court and German Federal Patents Court. We fully expect the patent to be revoked before any Nokia appeal proceedings take place."

A Nokia spokesperson said to ZDNet that the company will proceed with infringement claims against HTC over a further 30 patents. He said, "Nokia respectfully disagrees with the court's decision and we are considering our options,"

A separate judgment regarding HTC’s alleged infringement on Nokia patent EP 1312974 also went against Nokia.

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