HTC Gives German Patent Company Two Finger Salute

Smartphone Company HTC has given patent Company Ipcom a two finger salute after the German company demanded that HTC stop selling their 3G phones in Germany.

HTC management have indicated that it will not comply with the German request claiming that Ipcom’s intellectual property claim had already been ruled invalid by the German Federal Patents court 12 months ago.

The BBC is reporting that experts believe the case is not so clear cut and the firm could still be shut out of a market into which it sells over a million devices a year.

The case relates to a wireless patent originally developed by the German conglomerate Bosch for use in a car telephone system.

After exiting the sector the firm sold the rights to Ipcom in 2007.

Two years later the German firm Ipcom challenged HTC’s use of the technology in a court in the city of Mannheim, resulting in an injunction being placed on the Asian company.

HTC appealed against the ruling – causing the enforcement order to be suspended pending the follow-up hearing.

A judge had been due to reconsider the case at the start of this week, but HTC withdrew its appeal.

Ipcom said it has now told HTC that it intends to enforce the ban.

Earlier today HTC won a patent-infringement case brought by US company FlashPoint Technology who claimed that HTC infringed their digital-camera software patents.

The US International Trade Commission backed a ruling from July that FlashPoint’s patent rights hadn’t been violated, and the agency denied the closely held licensing company’s request to halt sales of some HTC phones. Notice of the decision was posted online today, and the full opinion will be made public after both companies get a chance to redact confidential information.

The dispute centred on technology related to how digital cameras work, including focus and flash settings, and automatic rotation of an image, according to Peterborough, New Hampshire- based FlashPoint’s complaint. An ITC judge in July said HTC phones that run Google’s Android system and Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 weren’t infringing the patents.

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p >The commission review centered on infringement of the patent covering the rotation of images and whether FlashPoint had met the agency’s requirements that the invention be in use in the US. The six-member commission has the power to block imports of products that violate US patent rights.