While HTC may have lost a patent case in the U.S. market, things are looking a little more positive in Germany where HTC was granted an injunction against IPCom this week. Since early 2009, the two companies have been locked in legal battle over 3G patents which are held by IPCom.
Here’s a little history on the situation. IPCom was granted an injunction against HTC a while back which effectively blocked the sales of HTC phones in Germany due to a 3G patent infringement. HTC appealed the injunction, claiming that the patent in question was invalid. While the German courts took time to sort out the patent’s validity, HTC was allowed to continue selling its phones. Recently, the German Federal Patents Court ruled that the IPCom patent in question was invalid, so HTC withdrew its appeal of the initial handset ban injunction which had been granted to IPCom since it technically not applicable anymore.
But since the German courts never did anything about the import ban injunction against HTC, IPCom has taken it upon themselves to harass German retails who are still selling HTC phones and threatening them with legal action. This is where the new injunction comes into play. The Dusseldorf court in Germany has now served IPCom with an injunction which forbids the company from threatening local retails for selling HTC phones.
It’s clear that IPCom’s just being a sore loser, but this whole situation could have been avoided if the German courts got their act together and addressed the issue before it got out of hand. While things are technically resolved, we wouldn’t be surprised if IPCom stirs things up again in the next few months.
Source: CENS
