The UK High Court found in October that HTC had infringed Nokia's European patent number 0998024, described as a 'modular structure for a transmitter and a mobile station'. As a result, Judge Richard Arnold ruled today that HTC can no longer sell its One Mini smartphone in the UK.
HTC had tried to argue that the microchips found to infringe Nokia's patent were “a very small component” and therefore did not justify a sales ban. It also claimed that HTC does not compete with Nokia in the UK, because its smartphones run Google's Android operating system while Nokia's running Microsoft's Windows Phone OS.
However, Nokia dismissed these arguments, claiming that it has "lost sales of Lumia phones since the launch of the One range." HTC sold about 715,000 smartphones worth about £221 million in the UK between January and September, according to court documents.
HTC's flagship One smartphone was also found to infringe the patent, but a ban has been delayed to give HTC time to appeal. Judge Arnold said in his ruling that blocking UK sales of the One would cause “considerable” damage to HTC's UK business.
HTC has until 16.00 GMT on 6 December to apply to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal against Justice Arnold's ruling. The company told the Telegraph that it had already filed urgent application to appeal.
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"Whilst the Court also granted an injunction that affects other third party chipsets, we have filed urgent application to appeal. In the meantime, we are working with our chip suppliers to explore alternative solutions," said HTC in a statement.
"Pending the appeal, HTC has undertaken not to ship any more of the infringing products into the UK, except the HTC One which it may continue to sell until the conclusion of any appeal," said Nokia. "If HTC does not succeed on appeal, the injunction will take effect on all infringing products. Nokia is also claiming financial compensation for the infringement of this patent."
Nokia sued Apple over the same patent and settled the case in April 2011, after agreeing to grant Apple a license.
