German court dismisses two Nokia patent infringement claims against HTC

Taiwan's top smartphone maker HTC said yesterday that a German court had dismissed two patent infringement complaints brought against it by Finnish phone giant Nokia.

The District Court of Mannheim in southwest Germany dismissed the two complaints on Friday and awarded HTC its legal costs, the firm said.

HTC said it believed "Nokia has exaggerated the scope of its patent in order to extract unwarranted licensing royalties from Android handset manufacturers", adding: "We are gratified that the court apparently shares HTC's view."

One of Nokia's complaints alleged that HTC infringed a part of its patent on "a method for using services offered by a telecommunications network, a telecommunications system, and a terminal for it", HTC said, in a case reportedly involving distribution of the Google Play application store.

In a separate judgment the court rejected Nokia's complaint that claimed HTC infringed a patent for lightening and dimming the smartphone display.

Nokia can appeal the ruling.