Nokia, LG, HTC, Motorola, Face ITC Probe over Smartphone Chips
The U.S. International Trade Commission voted Tuesday to
investigate allegations that Nokia Corp. LG Electronics Inc., Motorola Mobility
LLC, HTC Corporation, and others are importing smartphones that infringe
integrated circuit patents held by Tela Innovations Inc. However, of some unknown reason Apple isn’t
in the complaint.
The trade commission, which also said it would investigate
Google Inc.'s Motorola Mobility LLC, HTC Corp. and Pantech Co. Ltd., will probe
whether the companies violated Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 by
importing phones that copy seven of Tela's patents.
If the ITC finds that the import and sale of the phones
infringed Tela's patented circuit technology — as the company claims they did —
HTC, LG, Nokia and the others could face permanent import bans on certain
products.
The commission said it would set a target time frame for the
investigation within 45 days of Tuesday's announcement.
Tela sued the companies in both the ITC and Delaware federal
court in last month, claiming the five companies' highly popular smartphones
copied Tela's design for optimizing the layout of an integrated circuit.
California-based Tela said its patents protect varyious
improvements for manufacturing integrated circuit chips, which are used in
virtually all modern electronic devices including smartphones, tablets and
laptops. Specifically, the technology uses novel methods to improve the process
of printing a circuit layout on the tiny chips.
Tela's patents are U.S. Patent Numbers 8,217,428; 8,258,547;
8,030,689; 8,258,550; 8,258,552; 8,264,044; and 8,264,049.
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