Court dismisses Nokia patent claims against HTC

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan's top smartphone maker HTC said on Saturday a German court had dismissed two patent infringement complaints brought against the company by Finnish phone giant Nokia.

The District Court of Mannheim in southwest Germany dismissed the two complaints on Friday and awarded the HTC its legal costs, the company said in a statement.

HTC said it believed "Nokia has exaggerated the scope of its patent in order to extract unwarranted licensing royalties from Android handset manufacturers", adding: "We are gratified that the court apparently shares HTC's view."

One of the complaints from Nokia alleged that HTC infringed a part of its patent on "a method for using services offered by a telecommunications network, a telecommunications system, and a terminal for it", HTC said, in a case reportedly involving distribution of the Google Play app store.