Nokia last won injunction against HTC Android devices over USB related patent in Germany, but HTC’s flagship One series escaped the ruling somehow. HTC can hardly breath easy, though!! A German court has today handed over injunction against all HTC Android devices including its ‘One series of devices’ to Nokia in another patent litigation ruling.
The patent in question is about a “method for transferring resource information” by allowing end users to connect two HTC devices directly over NFC or Bluetooth (but not over WiFi or the Internet) to transfer resource information such as a URL. According to FOSS patents, this being a non-SEP patent can make life really tough for HTC.
The New Year’s Eve fireworks kicked off a day early at the Munich I Regional Court, where Judge Dr. Matthias Zigann just handed Nokia a Germany-wide patent injunction against all HTC Android devices (including the One series) that infringe EP1148681 on a “method for transferring resource information” by allowing end users to connect two HTC devices directly over NFC or Bluetooth (but not over WiFi or the Internet) to transfer resource information such as a URL. The patent is not standard-essential, meaning that Nokia does not have any FRAND licensing obligations.
Nokia has now asserted 50 patents in 7 countries against HTC and won 3 major injunction orders including this, in 2 different markets. Understanding the fact that this patent can spell trouble for entire Android platform, Google has also tried to help HTC during the trial, but without an impact.
Nokia has one more patent litigation case against HTC, targeting Google’s Maps and navigation services. So, slowly it may emerge to be Nokia vs Android or Nokia vs Google and that may really yield bigger benefits for Nokia.
Source: FOSS patents
[embedit snippet=”adversal5″]
