The smartphone industry is no stranger to legal wranglings, with Apple and Samsung duking it out in the courts in a very high-profile battle over certain patent infringements. Samsung has already been ordered to pay Apple more than $1 billion in damages after being found to infringe upon various Apple held patents, but that doesn’t seem to be enough as Apple is seeking to extort an additional $707 million from the Korean electronics giants. If recent reports are true, then it looks like Nokia and HTC could be heading for their own legal battle.
The information comes from a so-called previously reliable source who has knowledge of the impending court case and says that Nokia is about to launch some legal action against HTC over the look and design of their recently announced Windows Phone 8 smartphones. Nokia and Microsoft have recently held a joint media event to announce the Lumia 820 and 920 devices that will be powered by Windows Phone 8, with the 920 hopefully being the device that propels the Finnish handset maker back to the top of the smartphone charts.
HTC also held their own event in the last few days with Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer in attendance. The purpose of the event was to announce their own Windows Phone 8 handsets, the HTC 8X and 8S. There is no denying that the newly announced HTC devices look extremely attractive, but you would laugh out of the office for claiming that the 8X has more than a passing resemblance to the Nokia Lumia 820. Much to the possible detriment of HTC, it looks like the similarities haven’t gone unnoticed by Nokia.
The source in question is stating that Nokia is preparing their case in an attempt to try and get the HTC 8X banned from sale in certain territories. The device in question isn’t due to go on sale until November, but if Nokia gets their way, then that won’t happen, at least in the parts of the world that their design patents are enforceable. With both sets of devices scheduled to hit the market in November after Windows Phone 8 has officially launched, it’ll be interesting to see how this one pans out and if the legal action actually comes to fruition.
(via Neowin)
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