ITC judge rules against InterDigital in first round of 3G patent case (update)

After two long years, the International Trade Commission has finally come to a decision in favor of Huawei, Nokia and ZTE in a 3G patent case brought by InterDigital in 2011. According to an ITC judge, the three phone manufacturers did not violate the seven InterDigital-owned patents that covers various WCDMA and CDMA2000 technologies used to make their devices. InterDigital even went so far as to request the ban of US sales of these devices pending a decision. The Pennsylvania-based company filed a similar complaint against LG, which chose a settlement instead of going through the courts but it argued it had a right to arbitration based on a previous licensing agreement and was taken out of the case (see update below). Still, this is just a preliminary ruling; the final decision of the case is expected in October.

Update: The story initially said LG chose a settlement instead of going through the courts, which is incorrect. We learned from InterDigital that while LG was in the original case, the ITC took them out once LG said it had a right to arbitration. However, the Court of Appeals of the Federal Circuit ruled earlier in June that the ITC has made a mistake in excluding LG. So, LG could still face the initial charges brought to it by InterDigital.

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Source: Reuters