Nokia has been exonerated by the U.S. International Trade Commission in the case against InterDigital when the agency confirmed an earlier decision that the Finnish phone maker did not violate some of the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based wireless IP group's UMTS based 3G patents.

 The action originated in 2007, but in August this year the ITC ruled in Nokia's favour and InterDigital requested a review of that decision.

 InterDigital also claimed Nokia engaged in unfair trade practices by selling the handsets for importation into the United States.

"We strongly disagree with the Commission's decision. We believe in the merits of our case and are considering a number of options in response to the Commission's decision," said William Merritt, President and Chief Executive Officer, InterDigital.

 Merritt added the patents in question represent only a small portion of InterDigital's intellectual property portfolio.

 "This decision is clearly not the desired outcome, but it does help us identify how to strengthen our portfolio and licensing program moving forward. We remain confident of achieving our goal of licensing all manufacturers of 3G terminal units, as evidenced by our very recent license agreements with Pantech and Cinterion." Meanwhile Nokia said in a statement that the ITC decision is consistent with a "previous judgment in the U.K. that found several InterDigital patents not to be essential to the UMTS mobile standard."

This refers to a ruling in the UK that had also dismissed attempts by InterDigital to link several patents to UMTS and may have an impact on previous cases. For instance Samsung last year agreed to a settlement rather than let a similar patent dispute reach a conclusion.

By: DocMemory
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