'Delighted' HTC scores another big win as court dismisses Nokia’s patent claims

Taiwanese smartphones-maker HTC scored another big legal victory when a German court not only dismissed rival Nokia’s patent infringement claim against it, but also awarded HTC its legal costs in the case – something that doesn’t happen too often in lengthy legal patent disputes. In fact, according to an HTC statement sent to Emirates 24|7 , the Taiwanese firm said that, “[i]n an almost unprecedented move, the Court handed down its judgement immediately after the hearing, indicating that Nokia’s infringement case was so poor that the court required no time to deliberate further after hearing Nokia’s oral arguments.” The decision came for a Nokia complaint that HTC had infringed the German part of a patent titled ‘A Communication Network Terminal for Accessing Internet’. According to Foss Patents [https://www.fosspatents.com/2013/04/german-court-dismisses-another-nokia.html], “Nokia had alleged that Android’s app architecture centred around the Google Play store infringes the said patent because of the way it allows third-party app developers to provide data to the end-user devices on which their programs run via a Google-operated server. The nature of Nokia’s infringement contentions triggered an intervention by Google. Another Nokia lawsuit that the Mannheim court recently dismissed also targeted Google Play (the fact that it provides a changing catalogue of offerings to end users), and Google had intervened in that case as well.” In its statement, HTC added that “Nokia claims to have spent €45bn on R&D in the last 20 years, but this investment has apparently not been supported by effective patent prosecution.” The Taiwanese firm is, obviously, “delighted” with the verdict, which comes a month or so after the same court also dismissed two patent complaints filed by Nokia against HTC and had, even at that time, awarded the Taiwanese giant its legal costs. However, these three cases make up but a small proportion of cases that Nokia has slapped against HTC. “To date, of the 24 infringement actions that Nokia has brought against HTC in Germany, two have been stayed because of concerns over validity, and three have now been dismissed outright,” HTC said in the statement. “Together, these decisions cast serious doubt on the strength of Nokia’s patent portfolio and we remain confident that it poses little threat to HTC. HTC is delighted with this decision. ALSO READ: Samsung's Galaxy S4 is not a great phone, say reviewers Apple Inc. hints at 'amazing' iPhone 5S; pays $100bn dividend as Galaxy S4 is unveiled in Dubai Win iPad Minis with Emirates 24|7 Upsized iPad 5 to sport 9.7" screen; 25% lighter, 20% thinner Samsung Galaxy S4 is cheaper in Dubai than HTC One and BlackBerry Q10 Faulty fingerprint sensors force Apple Inc. to cull 8m iPhone 5S Will Google Glass get banned in the UAE?