HTC and Sony prevail over patent troll WiLAN

A federal jury has just taken a bite out of patent licensing firm WiLAN's business plan, ruling that HTC, Sony, Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson didn't infringe any of the four patents it sued them over. The latter two companies fended off three wireless base station claims, while Sony and HTC defended a fourth involving handset technology. HTC said it believed that WiLAN "exaggerated the scope of its patent" to extract royalties, while a spokesman for Alcatal-Lucent said it believed the company "was stretching the boundaries of its patents" -- all of which were invalidated by the court. WiLAN has been fighting such battles on numerous fronts for many years, including one reported to have resulted in a large settlement with Intel. Though it said it was disappointed by the decision, the IP firm still has pending litigation against Time Warner and Comcast, among others. Those cable firms may be hoping a White House patent reform bill will be tabled sooner rather than later.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Sony, HTC

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Source: WSJ (subscription), Bloomberg