HTC Corp (宏達電) on Saturday praised a German court’s decision to stay a patent lawsuit filed by Nokia Oyj against the Taiwanese handset maker because of doubts over the validity of the patent.
The District Court of Mannheim on Friday handed down an order to stay claims by Nokia that HTC had infringed on the German section of the EP0879538 patent, which was likely found invalid based upon the court’s assessment, according to a report by mobile patent news blog FOSS Patents.
The patent, covering a feature that allows enterprise information-technology administrators to send text messages to wireless devices to activate or deactivate certain programs, remained before the German Federal Patents Court after HTC questioned its validity in March, the report said.
The FOSS Patents blog is run by Florian Mueller, an award-winning intellectual property analyst with 25 years of software industry expertise.
“HTC is naturally delighted with this decision, which serves to confirm its view that the strength of Nokia’s patent-portfolio has been greatly exaggerated,” the company said in a statement.
“HTC shares the view of the District Court that this patent will very likely be revoked in the ongoing invalidity actions pending before the German Federal Patents Court and the English Patents Court,” the statement added.
Among the 25 infringement actions that Nokia has brought against HTC in Germany, three have been stayed because of concerns over validity and three have been dismissed outright, according to the Taoyuan-based company.
However, Nokia has repeatedly issued statements to the media accusing HTC of pirating its technology, HTC said.
“As there is clearly no factual basis for Nokia’s statements, HTC can only conclude that these statements are solely intended to damage HTC’s reputation in the eyes of its customers, presumably to pressure HTC into an unfair settlement,” it said.
FOSS Patents reported that the Nokia-HTC infringement proceedings might resume after the Munich-based Federal Patent Court has ruled on HTC’s invalidation complaint, which is unlikely to happen before 2015.
The blog also quoted Nokia’s comment on the decision as saying that the Finnish mobile phone maker looks forward to demonstrating the validity of its patent.
“HTC must respect our intellectual property and compete using its own innovations,” Nokia said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six