14 DAY TRIAL // HTC is now allowed to sell its HTC One mini smartphone in the UK again, although a court ruled last week that sales of the vendor’s device be suspended.
The Court of Appeals decided yesterday to grant a stay of injunction on all HTC smartphones, after Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia won a patent dispute against the Taiwanese vendor.
Last week, a judge found certain smartphones from HTC to infringe on patents owned by Nokia, and ruled that sales of HTC One mini be banned in the UK starting December 6.
The court also ruled that HTC One was infringing on one Nokia patent as well, but that it would be allowed to remain up for sale in the UK, so as not to hurt HTC by preventing it from selling any handset in this market.
According to Pocket-lint, HTC is quite happy with the Court of Appeals’ ruling and will start shipping devices in the HTC One series immediately to partners in the country.
“HTC is delighted that the Court of Appeals has granted a stay on the injunction against our products. We will immediately resume shipment of all of our devices into the UK, including the entire HTC One family,” the company reportedly said.
“Similarly, our customers should feel confident in their ability to promote and sell all HTC devices,” the handset vendor added.
At the same time, HTC will continue working with its partners to find new chipsets to pack inside its smartphones, so as to avoid further infringements on Nokia’s patents.
“Even though we plan to aggressively appeal the validity decision of Nokia’s EP 0 998 024 patent, we will continue to work with our chip suppliers on alternative solutions to ensure minimal disruption to our business in the future,” the mobile phone maker said.
HTC has had issues with HTC One shipments right from the beginning, as suppliers chose to send components to larger vendors. Despite the fact that it has seen positive reviews, the smartphone did not help the phone maker to regain its foothold on the market.