Preliminary ITC Ruling Could See US Import Ban Of HTC Devices

It has been a while since we heard anything about the legal tussle that both Nokia and HTC are embroiled in. Well it looks like in a preliminary ITC ruling, it seems that the courts might have favored Nokia and agreed with Nokia’s claims that HTC had infringed upon some of their patents, a ruling which could lead to a import ban of HTC devices into the US. According to the preliminary order, “The Administrative Law Judge hereby determines that a violation of Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, has been found in the importation into the United States, the sale for importation, or the sale within the United States after importation of certain electronic devices, including mobile phones and tablet computers, and components thereof, in connection with the claims of U.S. Patent Nos. 7,415,247 and 6,393,260.”

It is more than likely that HTC will petition this ruling to get it reviewed and possibly overturned, but worst comes to worst, we expect that HTC will eventually end up making a deal with Nokia where they will pay them a licensing fee for whatever patents they might have infringed upon. It was only earlier this year that Nokia beat HTC in the Netherlands which saw a similar preliminary injunction as well.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: HTC, Legal, Nokia