Thinking of buying a loved one an HTC One mini for Christmas? You’d better be quick, because as of 6th December they will be taken off the shelves after HTC lost a patent battle with Nokia today.
Without getting too technical, there’s a chip in the HTC One mini that infringes a patent held by Nokia. Nokia has argued successfully that the HTC One mini would be unsalable without the Finnish company’s technology in it’s current form, and therefore a UK judge has ruled that the One mini should be withdrawn from sale.
Nokia won a similar case in 2011 against Apple. This was settled with a licensing agreement allowing Apple to use the technology by paying Nokia.
Not content with getting a sales ban, Nokia also want financial recompense which could run into millions of pounds as HTC sold about 750,000 of the mid-range smartphones worth about £221 million in the U.K. between January and September.
HTC have until Friday to appeal the case. This is a costly process, and considering Apple couldn’t beat Nokia, a company that’s losing money like a drunk in Las Vegas will have some big decisions to make.
HTC has agreed to halt imports of the handset to the UK pending the appeal.
Source – Bloomberg