HTC / Nokia Patent Infringement Complaints Dismissed
Press Release: HTC is delighted with today’s decision of the District Court of Mannheim, which dismissed Nokia’s infringement complaint against HTC, which alleged that HTC infringed the German part of its EP0812120 patent (the ‘120 patent) entitled “Method for using services offered by a telecommunications network, a telecommunications system, and a terminal for it.” The court also awarded HTC its legal costs. 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. 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. 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.
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.
In a separate judgment handed down on the same day, the District Court of Mannheim also dismissed a further infringement complaint by Nokia alleging that HTC infringed the German part of patent EP 1312974 (the ‘974 patent) entitled “Electronic Display Device and Lighting Control Method of Same”. HTC is naturally extremely pleased by the court’s decision and will also be continuing with the invalidity action pending before the English Patents Court and German Federal Patents Court , as we believe that this patent is also invalid. Again, we are confident that the Federal Patents Court will revoke the patent before any appeal filed by Nokia is heard.
While ‘974 patent is apparently less important to Nokia than the ‘120 patent, this decision nevertheless represents another major setback for Nokia in its attempt to license its non-essential patents to Android handset manufacturers.
