In a minor setback to Nokia, US High court has rejected its appeal against InterDigital, which contended that InterDigital couldn’t block imports of the devices with disputed technology because it wasn’t making any products of its own. Earlier, a federal appeals court had said InterDigital could press the case, and now with US High Court rejecting Nokia’s appeal, Interdigital can pursue a bid to extract patent royalties from Nokia.
Nokia is joined by Amazon and HP in this appeal,
Companies including Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN:US) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ:US) joined Nokia in urging the Supreme Court to take up the appeal and limit the ITC’s jurisdiction. They argued that the commission has become a favorite forum for companies whose sole business is to obtain patents and seek royalties.
“Instead of protecting American jobs from unfair trade practices, the ITC is now imposing unfair litigation practices, to the detriment of the very domestic industries it is supposed to protect,” Amazon, Hewlett-Packard and Red Hat Inc. said in a court filing.
While the mood in US was supposed to be set against Patent trolls, it seems reality is far from it. It may be a blessing in disguise for Nokia as well, because it is soon going to monetize its patent in a bigger way, once the devices and service division goes MS way. That’s why even in spite of this setback, Nokia shares are up today :).
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