On Friday, a German court ruled in favour of Android handset manufacturer HTC Corp (TPE:2498) in the patent case brought against them by Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V).
The judges had not been convinced by Nokia’s allegation of patent infringement on two patents.
The first one, the EP0812120 patent (the 120 patent) called “Method,” utilizes the services offered by a telecommunications network, a telecommunications system, and a terminal for it; it describes the workings of application stores, explained CIO.
The second patent dismissed by the court was the EP1312974 (the 974 patent). It is called “Electronic Display Device and Lighting Control Method of Same” and describes a method for controlling the lighting of a display in an electronic device and when it is determined by ambient light.
After the ruling by the District Court of Mannheim, HTC Corp (TPE:2498) released a statement announcing the dismissal of Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V)’s complaints against them for infringing on a “method for using services offered by a telecommunications network, a telecommunications system, and a terminal for it and electronic display device and lighting control method of same,” reported The Wall Street Journal.
The company said that while it does respect the intellectual property rights of others, HTC said that it “believes that Nokia has exaggerated the scope of its patent in order to extract unwarranted licensing royalties from Android handset manufacturers.”
On a final note, HTC Corp (TPE:2498) said, “We are gratified that the court apparently shares HTC’s view and that, given the positive ruling of non-infringement today, the Android platform is now safe from oppressive enforcement of this patent.”
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V)’s response was as expected.
Spokesman Mark Durrant said the company “respectfully disagrees” with the decision and added, “We are considering our options. More than 30 further Nokia patents have been asserted against HTC Corp (TPE:2498) in other actions in Germany, the U.S. and the U.K. and we anticipate that we shall prevail in these.”
Friday’s ruling stems from a May 2012 complaint filed by Nokia against HTC, Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) and ViewSonic Corporation in the U.S. and Germany. It alleged their products infringed on numerous Nokia patents and the company asked for them to pay licensing fees.
In December, Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) settled with BlackBerry after the companies signed a licensing agreement. For HTC, it decided instead to continue the disagreement with Nokia in the courtroom.
Next up for HTC are the pending invalidity actions to be reviewed by the English Patents Court and German Federal Patents Court. The company is confident things will again go their way and said via CIO, “We fully expect the patent to be revoked before any Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) appeal proceedings take place. While Nokia will doubtless try to downplay the significance of this victory, the 120 patent is Nokia’s flagship patent, and appears to be one of the reasons that Apple was forced to settle with Nokia after it was asserted against Apple in the same court.”
