HTC Back in Court with IPCom Over Patent Infringement Dispute

Los Angeles – HTC Corp., the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile devices running off of Google’s Android operating system, is embroiled in an ongoing patent infringement battle with IPCom GmbH in a U.S. court.

A recent ruling from the court of appeals said that a 2010 decision by a lower court judge to invalidate an IPCom patent that the company was using in a patent infringement dispute against HTC was wrong. According to the ruling posted on the website for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, the lawsuit is being sent back to a federal judge who can consider additional arguments on the patent’s validity. The arguments concern mobile-device base stations. Apparently, the federal court is considering dismissing HTC’s motion for summary judgment to have the patent invalidated because it said the lower court misconstrued HTC’s claims, which only considered the apparatus but not the methodology.

This all began when HTC sued IPCom in 2008 and sought a declaration that it did not infringe a valid and enforceable claim of IPCom’s ’830 patent. IPCom filed a counterclaim and in addition to the ’830 patent, it alleged infringement of two additional patents. The ’830 patent at issue involves technology that provides a way to maintain service as a mobile phone moves from one coverage area to another.

IPCom is seeking royalties from a portfolio of mobile device-related patents that it had acquired in 2007 from Robert Bosch GmbH, the world’s largest supplier of automobile components. IPCom purchased the family of patents after Bosch failed to reach a licensing agreement with Nokia in 2003.

In addition to its patent infringement claims against HTC, IPCom has sued various German retail outlets that sell HTC’s Android-based 3G mobile phones.

HTC was founded in 1997 by Cher Wang, HT Cho, and Peter Chou. Initially established as a notebook computer manufacturer, the company soon began designing and engineering some of the world’s first touch and wireless hand-held devices. HTC’s smartphones were initially based on Microsoft’s Windows operating system software, but eventually shifted its core focus in 2009 to making Android OS-based devices.