HTC slays Nokia's two-headed Android patent dragon in Germany

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." ®