The HTC One Mini has been banned from sale in the UK after the Taiwanese manufacturer lost a British-based patent dispute with rival Nokia.
The HTC One Mini ban will come into effect as of this Friday, December 6, with Nokia also pushing to have the flagship HTC One pulled from retailers’ shelves in the UK.
According to Bloomberg, London’s Judge Richard Arnold ruled that the HTC One Mini imposes on a Nokia held patent, with one of the phone’s microchips responsible for the intellectual property breach.
Although HTC has agreed to halt shipments of the 4.3-inch handset to British shores, Nokia has confirmed that it will seek further damages now that the sales ban has been imposed.
“Nokia is also claiming financial compensation for the infringement of this patent,” a statement from the Finnish manufacturer has stated.
Although Judge Arnold ruled that the flagship HTC One also features the Nokia patent encroaching microchips, he has delayed a potential sales ban on the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Nokia Lumia 1020 rival, stating such a block would cause “considerable” damage to HTC.
We have contacted both HTC and Nokia for comment and will update this post shortly with their responses.
