Week 7 - Post 2: Nokia Patent Dismissed

        The other article that I read for this week was about a patent claim by Nokia against HTC that was effectively thrown out.  Essentially, Nokia had a patent claim filed against HTC on the grounds that they had violated a patent on a "'communication network terminal supporting a plurality of applications" (basically, a patent on a way to route data to apps)"'.   An ITC judge threw out the case on the basis that the patent claim was regarding a standard essential patent, and thus that the case had to be referred to the Commission, the six-member governing body at the top of the U.S. Trade Agency.  Nokia asked the Commission to review the judge's decision to throw out the patent claim, however the Commission denied Nokia's request, without citing a specific reason.
        Thus Nokia has effectively seen this patent of theirs thrown out by the ITC judge, with no hope of resolution from the Commission.  This patent infringement claim was one of five that Nokia already has failed to win against HTC, and so far it appears as if HTC is standing strong.  However a court is expected to soon announce another decision on a Nokia HTC case, a case which is expected to go in favor of Nokia, which has asserted 40 different patents against HTC so far.  Regardless, it seems that HTC is doing very well in defending itself so far, and Nokia may not see many substantial returns in the coming months, as HTC has countersued Nokia as well.  Thus what interests me most about Nokia's decision to continue pursuing patent assertions against HTC is what Nokia intends to get out of all their litigation.  It seems Nokia is receiving minimal returns on their litigation efforts, and for an already struggling company that once dominated the mobile phone industry, Nokia may find their resources better spent on further developing their own products to better compete with more popular smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy and the iPhone 5.  I wonder what everyone else thinks; should Nokia stop picking fights unnecessarily regarding patents and turn inwards instead?


Link: http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/03/itc-affirms-dismissal-of-one-of-nine.html