London, December 6- A UK High Court judge has reportedly revealed that Taiwanese mobile maker HTC is planning to release its next flagship smart phone in the UK between February and March 2014.
Richard Arnold has published a ruling saying that he concluded this after Nokia brought evidence of a first-quarter launch for the so-called HTC One Two to his attention during a patent dispute, which HTC’s lawyer also did not contradict, the BBC reports.
However, HTC spokeswoman said that she had no knowledge of any such plan.
It may be mentioned here that HTC Corp will have to stop selling its One Mini smartphone in Britain from December 6. A British court has ruled that the Taiwanese company had infringed patents owned by Finnish rival Nokia.
According to reports, the England and Wales High Court on Tuesday granted Nokia a final injunction to stop HTC from continuing to infringe upon a European Patent held by Nokia related to mobile phone microchips. The judge had ruled in October that HTC’s One phone contained the microchips, said the report.
HTC, responding to the lawsuit, reportedly said it would appeal the ruling.
The statement issued by HTC said: “We have filed urgent application to appeal. In the meantime, we are working with our chip suppliers to explore alternative solutions.”
Nokia in a statement reportedly said: “pending the appeal, HTC has undertaken not to ship any more of the infringing products into the UK, except the HTC One, which it may continue to sell until the conclusion of any appeal.”
“If HTC does not succeed on appeal, the injunction will take effect on all infringing products. Nokia is also claiming financial compensation for the infringement of this patent,” the report said.
With Agency Inputs
–Indiatoday
