HTC staring down the barrel of a US sales ban after Nokia's patent coup Electronic gadgets made by HTC infringed two of Nokia's patents, US officials have ruled - and it's a decision that could lead to a ban on sales in America, or at least convince HTC to cough up some royalties. Shockwaves from the judgement by the Uncle Sam's International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington [PDF, mind-numbing …
Now we know...the real reason why Microsoft is buying Nokia...
Oh do tell. Please enlighten the rest of the class, oh master of business strategy.
These patents belong to Nokia now. When/if MS buy the handset business off them, these patents will still be owned by Nokia. Who are giving MS a ten year license on them as part of the sale, as was mentioned in the article. Nokia are keeping the patents, and the name (which MS can only use for a brief period on certain handsets. What MS get is the phone division, minus patents. What Nokia keep are the 2 profitable bits of the business, the Networking side and the software side (mapping etc.).
So Microsoft have nothing to do with this case whatsoever. They're just another phone company who've bought a license from Nokia for these patents.
"When/if MS buy the handset business off them, these patents will still be owned by Nokia."
Are you sure? Apparently a lot of the phone-related patents are going to Microsoft:
"The deal gives Microsoft Nokia’s ... war chest of 8,500 Lumia and Asha phone patents while licensing 30,000 utility patents..." --> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/03/microsoft_nokia_rise_of_elop/
Everywhere else I've read though that no patents are transferred, only licensed, so not entirely sure.
Nokia: Please buy our failing phone division.
MS: We're thinking about it. will you sell the patents?
Nokia: No, but you can licence them for a decade.
MS: That's good, but we're quite interested in establishing royalty payments to end the scourge of free software.
Nokia: Do the royalty payments have to go your way or is it enough that there is a financial cost to non MS software?
MS: Depends. What are you suggesting?
Nokia: If you buy the phone division we'll keep the patents but sue the shit out of everyone for patent infringement.
MS: Excellent.
Ok, Nokia are in the shit and they decide to use Apples strategy ( or is that Microsofts, Goolges, Motorolas, Samsungs strategy) of suing your opponents into final submission....
What happend to invent, create, design, astound, NEW.........Nowadays it's all legalese.....
If any one you know the French TV satire known as the "Les Guignols" I am sure that you will recognize that we are definately heading towards the rule of the "World Company."
Info : "Les Guignols", they are a bit like Spitting Image but far more satirical and scathing. I think the British have an world class sense of humour, but the French really know how to bite, especially concerning politics.
NOKIA have been asserting electrical and other communications related patents for a very, very long time. Unlike newcomers to the market, NOKIA has been around quite a long time and has a very strong patent portfolio.
These patents are competitive advantage for NOKIA. Perhaps you never wondered why NOKIA handsets seem to be able to get a signal almost anywhere, while others are decidedly more dodgy? Perhaps these patents are a clue.
NOKIA might have created a rod for its own back by betting the handset farm on Elop and WinPhone, but they were savvy enough to keep their intellectual property when they sold Elop back to MS with an attached global cellular handset company as a condition of sale.
Just like how KODAK leveraged it's intellectual property to stay head of the competition and on top of the digital camera market (being the inventors and patent holders of the digital camera as such).... oh, wait...
Relying on patents is not a business strategy, it's a troll strategy which is becoming more and more precarious in light of the US governments recent interest.
"Ok, Nokia are in the shit "
No, Nokia are now a profit making business with lots of cash and plenty of credit lines (and were forecast to head back into profit this quarter even if they hadn't sold their mobile business). Nokia have always leveraged their IP assets. For instance against Apple:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20070970-37/apple-agrees-to-pay-nokia-patent-licensing-fees/
" I think the British have an world class sense of humour, but the French really know how to bite, especially concerning politics."
Not much left to bite in British politics. How do you satirise David Cameron, when he's already so shiny faced, effete, camp, and spineless? How do you make a funny puppet of Hampstead socialist Ed Milliband when he was born with a Fluck & Law face and a matching lispy voice? And how can anybody mock "Everybody Hates Nick" - taking the mickey out of Clegg would have all the comedy value of setting fire to a tramp.
If the French are still able to do decent political humour, then the rest of the EU should impose a tax on them for unfair enjoyment, and give the money to Spain and Greece.
As someone mentioned above, Nokia phones do tend to get signal in places others can't. My mates place in darkest Berkshire was a dead zone for Apples/Samsungs et al. on every network apart from Orange, but my N900 got 3 bars on Voda and I could quite happily make & receive calls. May well be a first year electronic project, but somehow I doubt it...
I take it you've read the patents? I'm not what on course the black art of RF transceiver design would appear in the first year, but I know it wasn't on mine. These aren't just "device with rounded corners" style patents - they actually have some technical substance.
perhaps... "I'm not sure on what course..."
Still a valid argument, the improvement in call quality I now have with my friend having switched from Samsung to Nokia is marked. And she lives in a city with so-called complete coverage.
Nokia's downfall might be partly attributed to the fact that phone calls are so much less important these days - any device can manage to send a text.
Patent claims usually make me angry,
But this time it looks like the patents concerned were for reasonably innovative improvements to the radio reception that were not essential to making a phone. The kind of thing that patents actually exist in order to encourage.
But I dont know the details well enough I guess
.........genuine and credible hardware patents - they have after all been in the game a long time and done an awful lot of R&D. If these patents are indeed nonessential and not covered by FRAND terms then HTC will just have to pay up. Oh and yes, as has already been pointed out this has bugger all to do with The Demonlords of Redmond because all they got as part of the purchase of the mobile division was the right to "rent" use of the patents for ten years.
While the patents cover a system that is slightly more complex than some of the military signal equipment I worked on in 1984-1987, this stuff isn't out of the ordinary. (And yes, it's neat to see it in a phone!) This sort of thing was done with discrete components in equipment occupying large racks. Really, there's only so many ways to process an analog signal.
"While the patents cover a system that is slightly more complex than some of the military signal equipment I worked on in 1984-1987, this stuff isn't out of the ordinary."
You should have patented it then!!!
You could have had Nokia, HTC et al eating out of your hand!
Chance of a life-time: Lost!
I am sure he had valid US patents for some of the RF stuff I have just read as well as some for using circuits as RF aerials etc. I coded a modem project for him and that matches his specifications.
Unfortunately he got terminally sick and the company collapsed. The patents were then bought as one of the many assets by someone who only understood the words patent portfolio and had no idea what they were for.
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