Week 8, Post 1 — Nokia wins German patent injunction against HTC

Nowadays Nokia is in the news more for their patent troubles than for their products. Nokia recently won a German patent injunction against HTC over power-saving technology . This win might give Nokia enough leverage to sell a patent licence to it's Taiwanese rival unless Qualcomm, which provides bandset chipsets to HTC, can enable its customers to deactivate the patented power-saving technique. Deactivation would mean a shorter battery life, which would make HTC lose its competitive edge in the German market.

Judge Dr. Holger Kircher of the Mannheim Regional Court announced that the panel of judges he presides over found HTC to infringe on "reduction of power consumption in a mobile station." HTC was unable to deny infringement of this patent.

Nokia prevailed on a method claim and on an apparatus claim. With respect to the apparatus claim, it's a straightforward injunction. However, with a method claim, it's only infringed if end users actually use the feature. Therefore, the method claim can be worked around by HTC selling such devices to their customers on condition of them taking a license from Nokia (If Nokia offers a license to them at all).

However, HTC downplays the importance of this technique and claims to have removed it from the devices it is currently selling in Germany, suggesting that the fight will go on for some more time.