In the latest judgement in a long line of patent cases between a variety of mobile phone companies, the High Court have found that certain HTC phones, containing chips manufactured by Qualcomm and Broadcom, infringe a European patent owned by Nokia.
Nokia's patent is directed to a modulator using a Gilbert cell (a circuit which can be used as an analogue multiplier, a phase detector or a modulator) and they alleged that the Qualcomm and Broadcom chips contained in some of HTC's phones included such a modulator. The patent was found to be novel and inventive over two previously published patent documents.
On finding the patent to be valid, the judge then found a number of HTC phones, containing the Qualcomm or Broadcom chips, to infringe the patent, based on confidential technical documents from Qualcomm and Broadcom describing the architecture of the chips. HTC argued that none of the alleged infringing phones used a Gilbert cell because the chips did not contain the minimum number of transistors to form a Gilbert cell, however the judge disagreed with this based on information in a standard textbook which showed it was possible to form a Gilbert cell from fewer transistors than HTC suggested.
HTC's secondary defence to infringement was that of a licence. HTC argued that this arose because they purchased the chips from Qualcomm, who themselves were under a confidential agreement with Nokia not to be sued for infringement of the patent at issue in the trial. HTC argued that because the agreement was governed by Delaware law, the US Federal patent law doctrine of first sale or exhaustion of rights should apply. However, the judge ruled that as the chips were sold to HTC by Qualcomm in Taiwan, and not the USA, HTC could not rely on this licence defence.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
