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Nokia and HTC end patent battle, agree to collaborate [Gulf Times (Qatar)]
[February 09, 2014]

Nokia and HTC end patent battle, agree to collaborate [Gulf Times (Qatar)]


(Gulf Times (Qatar) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone is displayed in San Francisco. HTC and Nokia have agreed to collaborate after ending a patent-infringement dispute yesterday.   Bloomberg/Bangkok   HTC Corp and Nokia Oyj have agreed to collaborate after ending a patent-infringement dispute that could have resulted in the devices of Taiwan's largest smartphone maker being kept out of the US market. HTC will pay royalties to Nokia to end the dispute, they said on Friday in a statement, without disclosing the financial terms of the settlement. Each company will gain access to the other's patented technology and will explore "future technology collaboration opportunities," they said. The US International Trade Commission in Washington was scheduled to announce tomorrow whether it would issue an import ban on HTC devices. Both Nokia and HTC have lost their lead positions in the mobile phone market. Patents will be one area of focus for Nokia after the former mobile-phone market leader agreed in September to sell its handset division to Microsoft Corp. HTC is counting on an updated version of its One smartphone, its first wearable device and a renewed focus on marketing to help turn around the company after two straight annual declines in revenue. "The win could be a useful benchmark" for Nokia, Kulbinder Garcha, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, wrote in a note on Friday to clients. "The win positions Nokia well in the ongoing arbitration with Samsung to monetise IP beyond standard essential patents and implementation patents." The settlement and the patent agreement with Nokia has no material adverse impact on the finances of HTC, the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. The two companies said they have settled all pending patent litigation between them. "The pact reduces one uncertainty for HTC," said Fu-li Chen, an analyst at Jih Sun Securities in Taipei. "The deal was expected and may not have a big impact on HTC's finances." HTC is scheduled to hold an investor conference call tomorrow and release its January sales and first-quarter outlook statement. Nokia, based at Espoo, Finland, was once the world's largest maker of mobile phones, only to see its title collapse as customers flocked to the design and technology advancements in Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc devices. Sales of HTC, once the leading smartphone maker in the US, dropped 30% last year. Nokia is selling its phone business to Microsoft, a deal that's expected to close this quarter, to focus on networking equipment. It's retained patents on fundamental phone technology as part of a programme to try and recoup the billions of dollars it spent on research. "This agreement validates Nokia's implementation patents and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities," Paul Melin, chief intellectual property officer at Nokia, said in the statement. An ITC judge in September found that HTC infringed two Nokia patents for a way to remove errors in radio signals and a process to deal with different radio frequencies. No infringement was found of a third Nokia patent for a way to transmit data from a computer to a mobile phone, which Google helped HTC challenge. It was directed at phones running on Google's Android operating system. "Nokia has one of the most preeminent patent portfolios in the industry," HTC General Counsel Grace Lei said in the statement. "As an industry pioneer in smartphones with a strong patent portfolio, HTC is pleased to come to this agreement, which will enable us to stay focused on innovation for consumers." Many of Nokia's patents cover technology that's used across the industry. The case is part of a broader debate over whether patents that cover fundamental technology related to industry standards should be treated differently than, for instance, patents on specialised features. The Obama administration has come out for limited restrictions on so-called standard essential patents. It overturned an import ban won by Samsung against Apple because it said the ITC didn't fully address the criteria the administration laid out to determine if an import ban is appropriate.   (c) 2014 Gulf Times Newspaper Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company



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