In the coming weeks, it’ll be a little harder to buy an HTC phone in Germany. The county’s Mannheim District Court has issued an injunction, banning the sale of HTC phones through Deutsche Telekom. The court agreed with Acacia Research Group LLC’s patent dispute which claimed that HTC’s devices use a patented voice coding technology without proper licensing. So far, Acacia Research Group has secured licensing agreements for its patents with Apple, Samsung, Huawei and even Amazon.
As you might expect, HTC is not happy with the court’s decision and is planning an appeal. The good news is that the lawsuit was focused primarily on Deutsche Telekom’s sales of HTC phones, allowing HTC to continue selling its phones through other service providers and electronics outlets in Germany.
Removing HTC phones from a single service provider in Germany isn’t going to have a massive impact on HTC’s bottom line, but it is a step in the wrong direction when HTC needs to increase its visibility in the marketplace. We hope HTC and Acacia Research Group can work out their differences so that Deutsche Telekom’s customers will be able to continue to purchase HTC device from its website and retails stores.
Source: Wall Street Journal
