Nokia Blocking U.K. Sales of HTC One Mini ?

Nokia  Blocking U.K. Sales of HTC One Mini

A London judge said HTC  couldn’t sell its One Mini phone in the U.K. from Dec. 6 after it was found to have infringed patents owned by Nokia Oyj.

While Judge Richard Arnold also ruled that HTC’s One phone contained microchips that breached Nokia’s patent, he delayed an injunction against the product so HTC could appeal. Blocking U.K. sales of the One would cause “considerable” damage to HTC, he said in a ruling today.

HTC One, released globally including the U.K. in March, is the Taiwanese company’s flagship handset for 2013 and was lauded by reviewers for its sleek metallic design. HTC One Mini and HTC One Max, smaller and larger variants of the device, were released in the second half of the year.

“Nokia is also claiming financial compensation for the infringement of this patent,” the Espoo, Finland-based company said in a statement. HTC has agreed not to import any more of the products into the U.K. pending the appeal, Nokia said in a statement.

Two calls and an e-mail to HTC public relations after Taiwan office hours weren’t immediately answered.

HTC had argued the microchips found to infringe Nokia patents were “a very small component” and didn’t justify a sales ban, Arnold said in the ruling. HTC sold about 715,000 smartphones worth about 221 million pounds ($363 million) in the U.K. between January and September, according to the judgment.

Nokia also sued Apple  over the chip patent and settled the case in April 2011 after agreeing to grant Apple a license. In September, Microsoft Corp.  agreed to buy Nokia’s devices and services business for 5.44 billion euros.

Source : Bloomberg