Analyst: Nokia likely to prevail over HTC in patent dispute over USB

Simply over two weeks agone, Microsoft announced plans to buy the hardware and services division of Nokia. It'south the part of the company that actually makes all the hardware you've come to appreciate over the years. The remainder of Nokia will focus on three cadre businesses: location services (Hither platform), Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN), and its advanced technologies partition.

Nokia also keeps its patents portfolio, which Microsoft has licensed for 10 years. For others, they'll go along to demand to pay royalties to utilize patents that Nokia owns and Nokia will continue to protect those patents. It's happening right at present in Germany. And according to one patent analyst, Nokia is closing in on one victory over a USB configuration patent against HTC.

In Germany, HTC and Nokia are duking it out over a handful of patents in diverse courts. One of those battles is in Munich over patent EP1246071. That patent describes a "method of configuring electronic devices", specifically over USB. When do yous apply this patent? Basically anytime you plug your Windows Phone into your PC and transfer pictures, documents, movies, music and more over USB. It's a pretty big deal since a lot of HTC devices run Android, where syncing and transferring items to and from the PC is still very popular.

Florian Mueller is an intellectual property analyst. He runs the popular software patent blog Foss Patents. He was at the most recent court hearing for Nokia vs. HTC trial over patent EP1246071 and offers some of his insight to how the proceeding went. It's worth noting that he was the only person in attendance besides the iii judges, a court secretary, and the in-firm and outside counsel for Nokia and HTC. He notes that Nokia was winning all arguments against HTC over the patent. Exercise check out his web log post, sourced below, to get the full picture of what'due south happening in the estrus of battle.

What happens if Nokia wins? HTC could and would still sell phones in Germany, merely it would need to remove the USB functionality that so many people rely on. Which is something they would never practise, and then instead they'll almost likely pay Nokia a royalty to license the patents.

Curious near the patent in question? Read upward on it. What do you lot guys think of the courtroom case then far between Nokia and HTC? Audio off below

Source: Foss Patents

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