HTC may face resurrected patent dispute from IPCom in US
updated 07:55 pm EST, Mon January 30, 2012
HTC may be subject to renewed lawsuit in US
HTC saw a further setback in its attempts to survive patent conflicts on Monday after a US Court of Appeals in Washington ruled (PDF) that an earlier decision invalidating an IPCom patent in a lawsuit couldn't be upheld. The judge who had overseen the original case, where HTC had sued IPCom to negate its patent, would have to listen to arguments from IPCom as to why the patent was still valid. It would revive a lawsuit HTC had initiated in 2008 and thought it had resolved with its victory in 2010.
IPCom has been attacking HTC worldwide over mobile radio technology and just recently won in Germany, where it's trying to block sales of some HTC smartphones. HTC has been countering the efforts.
Much of the past year has worked against HTC. It has been losing to Apple in trade disputes and bought S3 Graphics to try and pin Apple in court with an existing win, only to see the verdict overturned and risk wasting $300 million dollars.
HTC has been squeezed mostly for its use of Android, both by Apple and Microsoft. Its support of Windows Phone has partly been interpreted as a bargain in return for more tolerable Android royalty demands from Microsoft.
