Nokia Loses 3G Patent Appeal

A UK court has rejected Nokia’s appeal against a High Court ruling that it infringed on 3G-essential patents held by IPCom.

The ruling was made despite the fact that the European Patent Office (EPO) recently revoked the same patent, a decision which IPCom is appealing.

Mixed signals

In June last year, the high Court ruled that an unspecified number of Nokia devices had infringed on the 100A patent, which is essential for the UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) standard. It was acquired by IPCom when it bought Bosch’s mobile patent portfolio in 2007, and has argued that a wide range of devices are subject to royalty payments.

Nokia had argued the licensing fees for using the patent are excessive and unjustifiable and claimed that only older software versions in discontinued products were guilty of infringement. However the court rejected this argument and sided with the German intellectual property company.

The Finnish manufacturer has said that the ruling won’t affect its sales in the UK, but IPCom said that it will seek an injunction on Nokia devices. The company began threatening German retailers with legal action if they continued to sell HTC’s 3G products in the country after it won a lawsuit last year.

The ruling is likely to increase confusion in the long-running legal battle as only last month the EPO invalidated the same 100A patent. IPCom is contesting the decision and the patent is valid until it is heard, causing it to argue that the decision had no impact on previous court orders.

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