HTC wins Android patent battle against Nokia

German court sides with Taiwanese giant

HTC has claimed courtroom victory over Nokia in a high-profile patent infringement case involving the Android platform.

A German court ruled that the Taiwanese handset vendor did not violate Nokia patents with its mobile devices.

The patent in question, EP0812120, relates to the way a system contacts a third-party service for applications. The patent was said to have been invoked by Nokia over the use by HTC of the Google Play market.

The ruling clears HTC of wrongdoing and will allow the company to collect its legal costs back from Nokia.

"HTC respects the intellectual property rights of others, but believes that Nokia has exaggerated the scope of its patent in order to extract unwarranted licensing royalties from Android handset manufacturers," HTC said in a statement on the matter.

"We are gratified that the court apparently shares HTC's view and that, given the positive ruling of non-infringement today, the Android platform is now safe from oppressive enforcement of this patent."

Android hardware vendors have become the targets of lawsuits over the Android platform. Google's mobile operating system has led to lawsuits for Samsung, Motorola and HTC among others.

Google itself was able to ward off a claim from Oracle over allegations of copyright infringement in Java components.

Nokia, meanwhile, scored a victory over Apple when a holding company backed by the firm won an infringement claim.