Just as many gamers have shouted over the headset in excitement, "BOOM! HEAD SHOT!" Nokia has won a patent injunction against HTC in Germany. Yes, we're aware that many of you have grown tired of such news being covered, but it's a Windows Phone OEM being attacked by another, so it's certainly worth noting exactly what's going on.
It's reported HTC has since disabled the patented power-saving technique in question on affected hardware. This change will lead to poorer battery life, further hurting the Taiwanese product line which incorporates Qualcomm baseband chips. The company is fighting back and it's believed a deal will be struck between the two parties at some point.
So what's the patent all about? As noted above, it's to do with power saving and expanding the life of the battery by identifying packets of data that can be reconstructed from only a portion of an encoded message. Whenever possible, power is provided to the receiving component only if and when further portions must be received in order to fully decode the packet. It's useful for only utilising components when required.
FOSS Patents reports the injunction is permanent and can be enforced preliminarily. In addition to the sales ban, Nokia also won a recall of infringing devices from retail, unless HTC complies with a license deal being struck or said infringing functionality removed. Nokia is also taking the patent claims to the US and the UK.
It was only last week that we reported on ViewSonic also negotiating a settlement to pay license royalties to Nokia. Nokia is asserting 40 separate patents against HTC in the three markets (Germany, UK and US), though the Taiwanese manufacturer is countersuing Nokia in Germay in two cases, involving one of its own power management patents.
Here's Nokia's official statement:
"Nokia is pleased with this decision, which confirms the quality of Nokia’s patent portfolio. Nokia has also patented this power saving invention in the US, UK, France, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Japan and Hong Kong. In addition to this case in Germany, we have asserted the patent against HTC in the UK and in the US International Trade Commission, with a hearing in the US scheduled to start in two months’ time. More than 30 further Nokia patents have been asserted against HTC in other actions brought by Nokia in Germany, the US and the UK. HTC must now respect our intellectual property and compete using its own innovations."
Nokia is currently struggling to build market share and patent licensing is a revenue source for the company. HTC has responded that the manufacturer will continue to fight against the claims and we're certain they won't go down without a fight. Once again, we're all sat around the patent table watching large companies point fingers and chuck sums of money to one another.
We'll no doubt be returning to this topic as the situation progresses or more names are drawn onto the patent battlefield.
Source: FOSS Patents
