It seems sales of the HTC One mini in the UK may be coming to a stop. This would be as result of an ongoing patent infringement case between Nokia and HTC. A London judge recently ruled that HTC would not be able to sell the One mini in the UK after December 6th, however the judge did delay the injunction to give HTC some time to appeal the ruling.
The judge, Richard Arnold, mentioned that immediately blocking One mini sales in the UK would cause “considerable” damage to HTC. Still, he also ruled the handset did contain microchips that breached a Nokia patent. While the eventual outcome has yet to be decided, Nokia is looking for financial compensation and HTC is arguing the infringing chips are a “very small component.”
HTC also argued that due to this being a small component, a sales ban wasn’t justified. Otherwise, as a result of the case, some sales figures were revealed. According to the judgement, HTC sold roughly 750,000 smartphones in the UK between January and September. This had the handsets worth about 221million pounds (roughly $363 million).
Despite HTC feeling the sales ban wasn’t justified, the company did agree to not import any additional units of the One mini into the UK while the appeal plays out in the legal system. That all being said, unless HTC is successful on the appeal, it looks like the One mini may soon be removed from shelves in the UK. Or in other words, those considering a purchase may want to commit sooner, rather than later.
VIA: Bloomberg
