HTC slays Nokia's two-headed Android patent dragon in Germany
'Another major setback' chortles mobe rival
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Nokia has lost a patent-infringement lawsuit it brought against rival phone-maker HTC. Nokia was upset about the way HTC's Android phones talked to Google app stores, claiming the communication ripped off its protected technologies.
A German court ruled HTC did not infringe the Nokia-owned patent EP0812120 – called the ’120 patent. Nokia has been told to pay HTC's legal costs.
In a separate ruling, the court also chucked out Nokia's claim that HTC infringed a patent that describes a method to adjust the brightness of a phone's display in daylight and darkness – patent EP1312974 (the ’974 patent).
In a statement, HTC said Nokia had exaggerated the scope of the ’120 patent in order to extract unwarranted licensing royalties from Android handset manufacturers.
"HTC also believes that the ’120 patent is invalid, and will continue with invalidity actions pending before the English Patents Court and German Federal Patents Court. We fully expect the patent to be revoked before any Nokia appeal proceedings take place," the company said.
HTC is chuffed it defeated the ’120 patent, dubbing it one of Nokia's flagship pieces of intellectual property; it said the ’974 patent is not as important as the ’120, but added: "The decision nevertheless represents another major setback for Nokia in its attempt to license its non-essential patents to Android handset manufacturers." ®
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COMMENTS
More to the point, which set of bastards are pushing Nokia this way?
Some evil losers are clearly pulling their strings - you can smell their desperation.
I just can't think who though. And since Nokia lost, this mysterious puppeteer can claim all ignorance, natch.
re. the '974 patent
This describes an auto-brightness function based on ambient light levels being detected and used to control display brightness. I remember back in the late '70s there was a medical ultrasonic scanner display (monochrome CRT) that had this feature, and the auto-brightness control was included in all the backlit controls and indicators of the scanner system. It had additional sophistication in that there was a small test patch of light-grey level in the lower corner of the screen that was covered by a light sensor and used as part of the control - hence it could take into account any tube ageing and possible different characteristics of a replacement tube.
No matter how clever you think you are, somebody has probably done it before but not made a song and dance about it. I have no idea how that patent could have been awarded to Nokia.
As for the communication with the Google Play Store, that sounds like internet communications and 'clever' software. Enough said.
Nokia has been told to pay HTC's legal costs
At least that's one bright spot. If you patent-troll and you fail, you need to pay.
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