Tuesday

Nokia, InterDigital claim patent case victory

HELSINKI/LONDON (Reuters) - Nokia (NOK1V.HE) and wireless technology firm InterDigital (IDCC.O) each declared victory in a court decision on Friday over patents related to the UMTS third-generation (3G) mobile phone standard.

A London High Court ruled in favor of Nokia, the world's largest mobile-phone maker, that most of the patents in the case are not essential for mobile phone operators wishing to comply with the 3G standard, as claimed by InterDigital.

The court did rule that one patent relating to power control in mobile handsets was essential to the 3G standard. The validity of that patent may be considered at a later hearing and Nokia could be found to have infringed it.

Shares of InterDigital rose $2.32, or 11.41 percent, to $22.66 on the Nasdaq after the ruling. Nokia shares closed up 4 percent in European trade.

Both sides said they were happy about the court's ruling regarding patents related to power controls that increase capacity of mobile base stations and improve signal quality.

"The result is an extremely favorable outcome for Nokia and other industry participants," Nokia said in a statement.

InterDigital said in a statement it was pleased with the outcome and that they believe this is the first ruling by any court of law finding any patent to be essential to the 3G standard.

Nokia filed a complaint in July 2005 asking the High Court to declare that 31 of InterDigital's European patents were not essential to the UMTS standard, saying the it was proactively defending itself from potential infringement suits in Europe by InterDigital.

InterDigital filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in August saying Nokia was engaged in unfair trade practice involving two InterDigital patents related to certain 3G handsets and components.

InterDigital also filed a complaint against Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and certain of its affiliates with the Commission in March, alleging patent infringements.

InterDigital said in October the International Trade Commission had consolidated proceedings in the two cases.

(Reporting by Sami Torma in Helsinki, Roger Pearson in London and Daisuke Wakabayashi in Seattle; Editing by Quentin Bryar, Leslie Gevirtz)

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