HELSINKI/LONDON (Reuters) - Nokia (NOK1V.HE) on Friday welcomed what it said was an extremely favorable court decision in a battle with wireless firm InterDigital (IDCC.O) on patents relating to the UMTS mobile standard.
Nokia, the worlds largest mobile-phone maker, won a London High Court declaration that most of the patents in the case are not essential for mobile phone operators wishing to comply with the third-generation (3G) standard, as claimed by InterDigital.
"I consider that three out of the four patents in issue before me are not essential to the standard," Mr. Justice Pumfrey said in his decision on Friday.
He did rule that one patent relating to power control in mobile handsets was essential to the 3G standard. The validity of that patent may be considered at a later hearing and Nokia could be found to have infringed it.
The patents involved in the case relate to power control, increasing capacity of mobile base stations and improved signal quality.
"The result is an extremely favorable outcome for Nokia and other industry participants," Nokia said in a statement.
Nokia filed a complaint in July 2005 asking the High Court to declare that 31 of InterDigitals European patents were not essential to the UMTS standard, saying the it was proactively defending itself from potential infringement suits in Europe by InterDigital.
InterDigital filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in August saying Nokia was engaged in unfair trade practice involving two InterDigital patents related to certain 3G handsets and components.
InterDigital also filed a complaint against Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and certain of its affiliates with the Commission in March, alleging patent infringements.
InterDigital said in October the International Trade Commission had consolidated proceedings in the two cases.
(Reporting by Sami Torma in Helsinki and Roger Pearson in London; Editing by Quentin Bryar)
