Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) is ready to step up in the battle against HTC. The Finnish tech giant filed a second complaint with the International Trade Commission on Thursday. They report that HTC was shifting away from the responsibility for infringing on suppliers. Nokia told ZDNet, “Nokia has filed further cases in the United States alleging that HTC Corp (TPE:2498) products infringe additional Nokia patents.We began actions against HTC in 2012 to end the unauthorised use of our proprietary innovations and technologies. Since then, despite the German courts confirming infringements of Nokia patents in HTC products, HTC has shown no intention to end its practices, instead it has tried to shift responsibility to its suppliers. We have therefore taken these further steps to hold HTC Corp (TPE:2498) accountable for its actions.”
This brings up more patents that are at issue. Florian Mueller (a patent blogger) found a list of exhibits from the ITC complaint. These exhibits show relation to chips from Broadcom and QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) that feature the HTC One device. Should this case prove successful, some devices like the HTC One could be banned from sales.
Nokia reports that HTC violates patents on ten smartphones:
The second patent suit Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) filed today actually covers three separate patents including terminal, method, and computer programming. In this particular patent claim, Nokia reports that HTC violates patents on ten smartphones, two of which include both the HTC One and HTC Corp (TPE:2498) First. Overall, the two new lawsuits cover nine patents and that brings the total to 50 lawsuits, all from Nokia.
Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) isn’t the only smartphone maker who is after Android smartphones. Apple has gone after HTC Corp (TPE:2498) and more notably Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930). Last summer, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) won a major patent dispute against Samsung and forced Samsung to pay $1.049 billion in damages for most of the patents. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) will continue their big patent dispute next year.
HTC Corp (TPE:2498) has yet to make a comment regarding the matter.
