A German patent ruling put a final negative note on HTC’s incredibly bad year and could have wide-reaching consequences for all of Android. As FOSS Patents reports, the Munich Regional Court issued an injunction against HTC devices for allegedly violating a Nokia patent that describes a “method for transferring resource information” between devices with NFC or Bluetooth. HTC can appeal the ruling but until it does so, Nokia can begin enforcing the injunction. Right now, that means HTC must post a €400 million (USD$550 million) bond. Eventually, this could mean a sales ban of infringing devices in Germany until HTC pays Nokia the proper licensing fees.
This patent ruling could also affect all of Android because it deals with the Android Beam feature Google first introduced in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Google is apparently starting to take notice, which is why FOSS Patents notes that Google-owned Motorola is now in discussions with Nokia on a potential settlement.
This marks the end of HTC’s year of bad news, which included poor sales, an executive indicted for stealing company secrets, and multiple rulings of patent infringement.
