A German court has told off IPCom and ordered them to stop harassing Media Markt and Saturn. After winning a court case regarding a violation by HTC of UMTS patents, IPcom wanted the shops to stop selling HTC phones with immediate effect.
The idea was that this large German chain was expected to know all the court verdicts and act accordingly. IPCom didn´t want to wait on the normal procedures and were were warning the shops that it would take legal actions against those still selling HTC’s smartphones.
HTC claims the verdict of 2009 is invalid and has appealed. At the last moment they withdrew the appeal so the injunction granted to IpCom would kick in force. At least IPCom thought so. HTC claims that a Federal Patents Court ruling that the patent is invalid renders the 2009 verdict null and void. so they didn´t withdraw the phones from the market- Result: patent troll IpCom went straight after the resellers to threaten them with cease and desist letters.
IPCom acquired Bosch’s mobile telephony patent portfolio, created between the mid-1980s and 2000, which includes about 160 patent families worldwide, including some of the key patents in the wireless industry, such as patent 100, which standardises a cellphone’s first connection to a network.
Several of the top phone makers have signed a licensing deal with IPCom, but HTC and Nokia have challenged IPCom’s technology patents in courts across Europe
Luckily the Dusseldorf court has now told off the troll from bullying shops and ordered them to stop all actions and letters to German retailers. Good for business as it would be plain madness if retailers become responsible for executing and explaining patent cases which are devastating enough for the business.
source: several. One linked.
#EuropeMax #patents
Patent firm IPCom has sued German retailers for patent infringement for continuing to sell phones made by HTC, the No. 4 smartphone maker globally.
+Lester Barrows the world needs a better patent system. Don't fight the symptoms, go to the cause. Strike at the root. Not the branches.
At 700-1000E per hour law schools will flourish.
+Paul Selormey the patents in this case are originally from Bosch and supposedly the patented technology is used in the UMTS standard. So IPCom claims that noone with a certified UMTS phone can NOT infringe on its patents. The real fight is what constitutes (F)RAND for these patents. IPcom asks a lot, HTC doesn't want to pay that. Hence they asked for invalidating the patent to stop the whole thing. Also note that IPcom has sued Nokia for 12 billion Euro in damages in a similar case.
It will indeed become a FRAND case as you say +Jan Wildeboer Formal hearing is scheduled for April if recall correctly. HTC will not only claim FRAND, but also seek cover behind the supplier of their communication chip. Just like Apple successfully did in a similar case.
File under #patentlyAbsurd.