Patent dispute in court: Nokia stops selling smartphones
Nokia's website has become empty. Only the two newest smartphones can still be seen there. All the others have disappeared. The reason: patent disputes that have ended up in court.
The legal proceedings are ongoing in several countries and have so far had an impact in Germany, Switzerland and France. There, the older models have disappeared from Nokia's website in each case. In Austria, Italy or the UK, however, HMD Global still sells all Nokia smartphones. The devices are also still available at retailers - also in Germany, Switzerland and France.
Audio codec for voice transmission as a problem
HMD Global told Heise Online, "HMD is a defendant in several lawsuits filed by a company called VoiceAgeEVS LLC ('VAEVS') in various jurisdictions, including Germany. We are disappointed with the decision in the VoiceAge enforcement proceedings in Germany in December and have filed an appeal against it. In the meantime, we have ensured that none of the devices offered and sold in Germany now support EVS."
The acronym EVS stands for "Enhanced Voice Services." This is an audio codec for voice transmission that is used in many smartphones. It is part of the 3GPP standardization project and was co-developed in part by the Canadian company VoiceAge.
VoiceAge's patents are managed by the company "VoiceAgeEVS". This in turn entered into a partnership with the investment group "Fortress" in 2018 and has since sued several smartphone manufacturers. For example, Apple, TCL and Lenovo. While Apple settled out of court with VoiceAgeEVS, HMD Global has apparently decided to take its chances in court.
When I was but a young student, I'd sit in my friend's living room with all my classmates and play on his SuperNES. Since then I've had the opportunity to test out all the newest technology for you. I've done reviews at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, and have now arrived at Galaxus.de.Â