Nokia patent suit against HTC is dismissed by German court
HTC scored a much-needed win in its ongoing patent wrangle with Nokia yesterday.
A regional court in Germany dismissed the Nokia suit which claimed HTC was infringing on one of its patents. The patent in question relates to technologies that allow users to receive calls while downloading over-the-air updates.
In a somewhat snarky statement, Nokia said that "HTC's first New Year's resolution for 2014 should be to stop this free riding and compete fairly in the market." The company is considering appealing the verdict, according to patents expert Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents.
The dismissal comes just weeks after the same court ruled that some HTC devices infringed on a Nokia patent covering data transfers through NFC and Bluetooth (HTC said it will appeal the decision). And earlier in December, the court ruled in Nokia's favour and granted an injunction against HTC for the violation of a patent covering device configuration over USB.
These patent suits are part of a concerted worldwide effort by Nokia to establish ownership rights of key technologies that the company believes are being infringed on by its rival HTC, as well as by BlackBerry and ViewSonic.
In the US in September, an International Trade Commission ruling found that HTC had infringed on two Nokia patents covering the transmission of radio signals. And in the UK last month, a court ordered an injunction on HTC's One Mini, after Nokia claimed that the devices infringed on a patent on a "modulator structure for a transmitter and a mobile station". (The ban was overturned on appeal.)