A German court on Thursday dismissed a patent-infringement complaint filed by Nokia Oyj against HTC Corp (宏達電) in relation to technology that allows users to accept calls while downloading software updates.
Judge Matthias Zigann of the District Court in Munich ruled that HTC’s devices did not violate Nokia’s patent on a “method and apparatus for updating the software of a mobile terminal using the air interface.”
HTC said it was pleased with the ruling and believes the patent would eventually be found invalid.
“This decision follows a string of similar dismissals against other patents that Nokia has tried to assert against HTC in Germany,” the Taoyuan-based company said in a statement. “We will continue to pursue the invalidity action pending before the German Federal Patent Court and expect the patent to be revoked in due course.”
The patent does not cover all over-the-air updates, but a particular way of enabling mobile phone users to accept calls while downloading an update, according to a blog post by technology patent expert Florian Mueller.
Nokia, which has filed a series of patent-infringement complaints against HTC since 2012, said in a statement that it “respectfully disagrees with” the judgement of the Regional Court in Munich and is considering an appeal.
The ruling came after the same court found in December last year that two other Nokia patents were infringed by HTC products, enabling Nokia to enforce injunctions against the import and sale of all infringing HTC products in Germany, as well as to obtain damages for past infringements.
The previous two German rulings in favor of the Finnish handset maker were on a USB-related patent and a patent on certain kinds of negotiated data transfer over NFC and Bluetooth connections.
Most of the infringing HTC products were outdated models and are no longer available in Germany.
Since 2012, Nokia has asserted more than 50 patents against HTC and believes that HTC has been free riding on Nokia technologies.
Regional Courts in Mannheim and Munich in Germany, the UK High Court of Justice of England and Wales, and the US International Trade Commission have found that HTC infringed on six Nokia patents.
HTC shares closed down 1.15 percent at NT$128.5 on Thursday, while the TAIEX fell 0.48 percent.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last