Nichia has indicated that the District Court of Dusseldorf in Germany in late March 2019 determined that its YAG patent, EP 0 936 682 (German patent code DE 697 02 929), was infringed by HTC from its use of white LEDs in some smartphone flash lights.
Co-defendants within the lawsuit are the Taiwan-based vendor’s subsidiaries HTC Europe and HTC Germany in addition to Digital River Ireland, a Europe-based e-commerce operator promoting HTC smartphones on-line, Nichia stated. Involved within the lawsuit are HTC U Ultra, U Play, Desire 626G, One A9s and One M9 smartphones, Nichia famous.
The court docket additionally allowed Nichia to assert damages arising from the patent infringement through the interval from June 30, 2007 to July 29, 2017 on which the patent expired, with the quantity to be decided primarily based on accounting books to be supplied by the accused, Nichia indicated.
The court docket’s ruling will not be remaining and HTC can attraction, Nichia stated.
HTC expressed disappointment on the ruling, however maintained it won’t have an effect on its advertising and monetary construction as a result of the topic patent has already expired.
In associated information, Nichia in October 2016 filed with Tokyo District Court in Japan a cost in opposition to HTC for infringing on its YAG patent on account of promoting smartphone HTC Desire 626 within the Japan market, and later filed with the court docket a similar cost in opposition to Taiwan-based Asustek Computer and its Japan-based subsidiary and gross sales brokers arising from promoting smartphone fashions ZenFone Go and ZenFone 2 Laser in Japan.
