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3 March 2014Patents

Apple fends off $2.2 billion IPCom claims

A German court has cleared Apple and HTC of infringing standard-essential patents owned by IPCom, a patent licensing firm.

IPCom sued Apple separately over two telecoms patents: European invention 1841268 and its German sister 19910239. HTC was only sued over the German invention.

In the European patent dispute, IPCom, a German company, was claiming at least $2.2 billion in damages from Apple.

The patents are directed to the 3G standard.

However, in three decisions on February 28, the Mannheim Regional Court rejected IPCom’s claims.

The patents, which allow handsets to access the networks of various telecoms providers, are used by the emergency services. They provide those services with priority access to networks in emergencies, even if the networks are overloaded.

Several tech firms, including Apple and HTC, have tried unsuccessfully to invalidate IPCom’s European patent 1841268, known as ‘#100A’. In January, the European Patent Office (EPO) rejected their attempt.

IPCom, which describes #100A as one of its core patents, acquired Bosch’s wireless patent portfolio in 2007. The company owns more than 1,100 patents.

Other companies, such as Nokia and Vodafone, have been found to infringe the ‘#100A’ patent.

Patent blogger Florian Müller, who attended the hearings against Apple last month, said the three decisions in Mannheim came as “no surprise”.

But in a statement sent to WIPR, IPCom director Bernhard Frohwitter said the company is “very surprised” by the rulings.

“That is particularly so since the very same court – like others in Germany and the UK – has already determined a multitude of infringements of this patent (‘#100A’).

“This decision is also difficult to reconcile with the latest decision of the EPO, since the EPO has explicitly accepted our interpretation of our patent – and this is the same interpretation we presented to the District Court of Mannheim,” he said.

Frohwitter confirmed that IPCom will appeal.

There are two outstanding cases in which IPCom has sued companies for infringing the ‘#100A’. In April, the case against retailer Media-Saturn will go to trial at the Regional Court of Munich, while a dispute with Nokia will begin at the Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe in May

The ‘#100A’ patent expires in 2020.

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