Well, I read an article on Foss Patents today about Nokia winning the German patent injunction against HTC over this power-saving technology! This did not surprise me however, since Blackberrry had lost against Nokia over a similar case, and agreed to pay royalties to Nokia for the patent.
I found it very interesting when I read about how HTC would only be infringing this patent if this particular method of conserving battery power is actually used by the owner of the mobile devices. This makes it seem very complicated...
Thus, the author explains how the injunction could be worked around by HTC is they their devices to their customers on the condition of them taking a license from Nokia. This of course, would only work out if Nokia would offer such a thing.
Well, with this win, Nokia for now has won a sales ban and a recall of infringing devices from retail. HTC currently pays royalties to Apple and Microsoft, and I predict that Nokia will be an addition to that list. On a side note, Nokia is also suing HTC for the same case in the United States, so I wonder what will happen to that case too.
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/nokia-wins-german-patent-injunction.html
Wow a sales ban and a recall!!! That is a major blow.
ReplyDeletegreat post! sometimes it really makes me wonder if paying royalties would be a better idea than suing each other. that way no single company is given monopolistic power and perhaps consumers could benefit too, since now the market price is not entirely governed by demand (too high) but more on the actual costs. and smaller / middle-size companies will be intersted in R&D knowing that there won't be too much costs on lawsuits. anybody believe otherwise?
ReplyDeleteGOod find, though I agree that understanding materials from these litigations are pretty confusing, especially in terms of battery technology
ReplyDeleteWow, an injunction is HUGE! Now HTC will have to halt production of phones that incorporate that technology. What a win for Nokia, who seem to be desperately trying to stay relevant. With this win, they're relevant for a little a bit longer...
ReplyDeleteHow do you think Nokia will respond to this win? I noticed that you mentioned that Nokia COULD offer a license to HTC if they wanted to, but the question now is if they want to. Does Nokia still generate a lot of its revenue from smart phone sales? Or has it gone to licensing? What is its business operations now? I would like to know if possible.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, great post! :)
I also wrote on this subject. Analytically you really got down to the meat of the case. HTC is really going to hurt from this ruling, as you stated they are already paying royalties to Apple and Microsoft, and now with Nokia also on the offense in the US (which I covered) I am wondering how they will dig themselves out of this deep hole.
ReplyDeleteI fear patenting could keep new companies from entering the market. If I wanted to design a smart phone, I wouldn't know where to start because every feature on the phone is under some existing phone companies patent and licensing all of them doesn't seem to make business sense.
ReplyDelete