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IDG News Service - Microsoft is suing Motorola Mobility in Germany over a mapping patent that Microsoft alleges covers the Google Maps app t ...
The patent wars are hotting up. The German patent-owning firm IPCom has sued German retailers for infringement for continuing to sell phones made by HTC, the fourth biggest global smartphone vendor, after issuing a warning to that effect two weeks ago.
A court in Mannheim, Germany, ruled in February 2009 against HTC in a patent fight with IPCom, allowing an injunction against sales of HTC phones using UMTS technology and setting a penalty of up to €250,000 (£216,000) each time the injunction was contravened.
All HTC smartphones use UMTS technology, but HTC insists that its phones use a different technology than that claimed by IPCom - and that the disputed patent, known as #100a, is anyway invalid.
But in late November, a court in Karlsruhe, Germany, said the injunction against HTC smartphone sales in Germany could be enforced after HTC dropped an appeal.
IPCom said in a statement on Thursday that it sent 100 retailers cease and desist requests on 6 December, asking them to stop selling HTC's 3G handsets by 20 December.
"Since this deadline has passed without any of the retailers complying, IPCom has sued them for infringement of patent #100a themselves," IPCom said, adding so far it has sued around 30 retailers.
The legal battle could cost HTC millions of euros and hurt its relations with retailers in one of its key markets.
HTC told the Guardian late on Thursday that it had yet to see a complaint or be contacted by its retail partners, but added: "the allegedly asserted #100a patent has never been found infringed by HTC's phones in any court of law. HTC once again confirms its position that its phones do not make use of the teaching of that patent. Furthermore, the #100a patent is subject to opposition in the European Patent Office (EPO) and HTC is confident that the patent will be revoked at the hearing on 24 April 2012. In an initial assessment, the European Patent Office has raised serious concerns as to its validity. It is for this reason that HTC obtained an injunction against IPCom's earlier warning letters which were misleading on this issue.'"
HTC sells around 2m smartphones a year in Germany, or 4%-5% of the group's total, according to research firm IDC.
"This poses another challenge for HTC in managing confidence of key distribution partners - a further reminder of the destabalisation effect patent claims threaten to exert on the industry in 2012," said Geoff Blaber, analyst at research firm CCS Insight.
HTC has previously said the battle with IPCom would have no impact on its business in Germany because the injunction covered only one HTC handset - which is no longer sold in Germany - and that it modified its implementation of the UMTS standards.
The Mannheim ruling does not mention any particular model.
Earlier this week HTC lost a patent case against Apple in the United States, where it gains half its revenues and is the largest Android smartphone seller. HTC said that it could soon replace phones with the disputed technology with new models.
IPCom acquired Bosch's mobile telephony patent portfolio, created between the mid-1980s and 2000, which includes about 160 patent families worldwide, including some of the key patents in the wireless industry, such as patent 100, which standardises a mobile phone's first connection to a network.
Several of the top phone makers have signed a licensing deal with it, but HTC and Nokia have challenged IPCom's technology patents in courts across Europe.
IPCom said that if HTC continued to use its patents without paying fair compensation, it could in future legally be refused a licence for IPCom's standards-essential patents.