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HTC forced to redesign phones to avoid sales ban

Published Feb 4th, 2014 3:40PM EST
HTC Nokia Patent Ruling

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A German court recently ruled in favor of Nokia in its patent case against HTC. According to the finding, several HTC smartphone models made illegal unlicensed use of a Nokia patent covering a “method and apparatus for enabling a mobile station to adapt its revision level based on network protocol revision level.” In a recent filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange picked up by ZDNet, HTC acknowledged the loss, called the technology covered by the Nokia patent redundant and stated that HTC is “investigating modifications for our handsets” that will prevent the impacted devices from being banned. Nokia, on the other hand, was obviously happy with the ruling. “Nokia is pleased that the Regional Court in Mannheim, Germany has today ruled that HTC products infringe Nokia’s patent EP 1 579 613 B1, which enables modern mobile devices to work in older networks,” the company said in a statement.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.