Boston, MA 10/23/2013 (wallstreetpr) – Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK)’s appeal was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court which took the sides of InterDigital Inc. The latter was pursuing the mobile giant in order to extract patent royalties for next generation technology in the mobile phone world.
Nokia had bid the highest court which challenged that InterDigital could not bar imports of the third generation mobile technology as it was not designing any novel products. In contrast, a federal appeals court had told that the company could do so like the others it has filed at the U.S. International Trade Commission, which is a quasi- judicial agency which seeks to safeguard U.S. markets against unfair trade practices like infringement of intellectual property. It has the authority to order goods detained at the U.S. border.
In this context, Nokia had gone ahead to appeal for a limitation at the jurisdiction of the ITC with the Supreme Court. In fact, Nokia was not the only company to make this appeal with the Supreme Court. It was seconded by other companies including Hewlett- Packard Co., Red Hat Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. The companies are all of the opinion that some companies have made the commission a forum where they could obtain patents and demand royalties from other companies. The companies argued that the Commission which is there to check unfair trade practices is now itself encouraging unacceptable litigation practices, which is hampering those very industries it vows to safeguard.
InterDigital along with the Obama administration is against these views and together, they told the court that it should not hear the appeal. The Wilmington, Delware based company said that it has always been at the vanguard of digital wireless networks ever since it was founded in 1972. The company said it is not there to just take unfair advantage of others’ patented inventions.
