It’s been an unfortunate few weeks for HTC, to say the least, what with the various resignations and a wave of internal problems going public. But things could be about to become much worse, as Nokia is seeking an import ban on the HTC One in the US. Talk about kicking a man when he’s down.
The One is pretty much the only thing going well for HTC at the moment, so an import ban in one of largest high-end smartphone markets could spell disaster for the struggling handset manufacturer.
The call for the import ban stems from, yes you guessed it, more supposed patent infringements, six of them to be exact. This brings the total number of patent infringements claimed by Nokia against HTC to a pretty hefty 50. HTC is currently dealing with various allegations of patent infringement from multiple parties regarding not only the HTC One, but also the First.
Here’s the statement from Nokia regarding the requested ban:
"We began actions against HTC in 2012 to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies. Since then, despite the German courts confirming infringements of Nokia patents in HTC products, HTC has shown no intention to end its practices; instead it has tried to shift responsibility to its suppliers. We have therefore taken these further steps to hold HTC accountable for its actions."
Some of the numerous allegations include: how internal components are arranged in a unibody device, how signal-to-noise ratio is handled in speech and data, and several elements to do with Google’s Android OS. Nokia also claims that HTC infringed on its patents for encoding and decoding video with Android’s VP8 codec.
In response to the complaint HTC simply told Bloomberg that:
"upon receiving the official document, HTC is to consider all legal options to protect our rights"
But it’s clear that this really is the last thing that HTC needs right now.
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