Turn off the mic: Nokia gets injunction on 'key' HTC One component
Dutch court stops Taiwanese firm from using microphones
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Nokia has said it bagged a court injunction in Amsterdam that effectively prevents HTC from using the microphones that are a "key" component of its HTC One smartphone.
The Finnish phone maker won a preliminary ban on the mikes, made by ST Microelectronics, stopping the firm from selling them on to HTC or anyone else.
"In its marketing materials, HTC claims that its HDR microphone is a key feature for the HTC One, but it is Nokia technology, developed exclusively for use in Nokia products," the company said in an emailed statement.
"Nokia filed this action after it discovered these components in the HTC One. HTC has no licence or authorisation from Nokia to use these microphones or the Nokia technologies from which they have been developed."
Nokia and HTC, which have both been feeling the pain of being a hell of a lot less popular than the current kings of mobile Apple and Samsung, have a number of patent cases going in Germany, the US and the UK as well as the Netherlands. The Finnish firm has asserted more than 40 patents against HTC, with wins and losses on both sides.
The microphones represent innovations known at Nokia as "High Amplitude Audio Capture", the company claimed, adding that they allow users to record music "that sounds as good as when you first heard it".
HTC said it was "disappointed" by the decision.
"We are consulting with STM and will decide whether it is necessary to explore alternative solutions in due course. In the meanwhile, we do not expect this decision to have any immediate impact on our handset sales," the firm said in an emailed statement. ®
COMMENTS
Highly Rated
Wait a minute
If the microphone is genuinly good and contains stuff designed by Nokia, this may actually be a story about patents working the way they should.
I think I need to lie down.
Of course Nokia may have simply patented using a microphone in a mobile to record stuff.
Actually, this not a patent issue. HTC didn't just copy the technology. They actually used the same hardware component (the same microphone), that was based on a Nokia design:
See this picture showing the component:
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/04/htcnokiainjunction.jpg
Nokia had an NDA with ST electronics about this component, and ST seems to have failed to follow the terms of the NDA.
Re: Could anybody explain...
Human hearing has approx 130 dB of dynamic range. Microphones with good audio quality at this kind of range are expensive, and too large to mount in a mobile phone.
A compromise (used by just about everyone else) is to use a less sensitive microphone, with 100 dB of range, but this means that loud sounds will cause it to distort. Alternatively, it can be mechanically damped so that it will not distort at high volumes, but then you lose the ability to detect softer sounds because the microphone diaphragm is now too resistant to movement.
Nokia's idea was to use two mics, one damped one for high level sounds, and another undamped one for lower level, and use some clever signal processing to mix these dynamically. A different version of the technology uses one diaphragm (with, I suspect, a non-linear amplitude response), and better signal processing to re-form the sound signal afterwards.
It is clever, and it does work. That's why they got the patent. But this isn't about patents... HTC didn't use the method to make their own part; it seems that their supplier, STElectronics, supplied HTC with the *exact* part that they were making on Nokia's behalf. That's not patent infringement, it's breach of contract and possibly theft (STE were making these for Nokia, and Nokia alone, so the components were not STE's to give to HTC).
Re: Maybe HTC could focus on
@I ain't Spartacus - How long did it take you to type that?
I hate to say that's however long of your life you're not getting back. Trying to make Eadon see outside his little Microsoft-hate-bubble is like trying to teach a whelk the trombone. Doesn't matter about the actual merits and flaws of the system/situation/whatever - if Microsoft or anything associated is involved, you can guarantee it'll be "wah wah wah WHATEVER FAIL".
Pint - because you've earned it trying. But in future, save your intelligence for others who are willing to consider both sides of the story, mate!
Would the problem then be ST electronics?
Nokia: "Here's our tech, use it only in our phones."
ST: "Okay."
HTC: "We need a good mic, any ideas?"
ST: "Well, we have this one lying around..."
How was HTC to know that the component wasn't "freely" available?
Paris, because she sounds better on mute anyway.
