HTC are not having a good time of it.
With they HTC One they come up with a brilliant handset, trumpet it in a massive fanfare and then realise that they are unable to deliver it
Now the Taiwanese company are about to be hit with more issues this time in the Netherlands.
HTC are now going to have to re-source certain components for their flagship handset after Nokia won a court case after showing that they own the patent for the microphone component.
As HTC haven’t got a licensing agreement in place for this technology the Dutch court ruled that the parts had been invented by Nokia and made specifically for use within their devices.
The parts are manufactured by a separate company called STMicro and sold on to HTC.
Nokia said
HTC has no licence or authorisation from Nokia to use these microphones or the Nokia technologies from which they have been developed.
“The injunction prevents STMicroelectronics from selling the microphones to anyone except us, anywhere in the world, until 1 March 2014. Its scope is not restricted to the Netherlands.
“The HAAC [high amplitude audio capture] technology used in these microphones is Nokia’s and there is no alternate supplier.”
STMicro intend to appeal the ruling but until the outcome is known it strikes another blow into the already stricken HTC.
HTC I hope are innocent of any wrong doing and this is all down to STC supplying something that they clearly are not allowed to supply.
I guess this means that all phones will have to be shipped back to HTC and new mics fitted?