HTC’s Victory in FlashPoint Patent Case to Be Reviewed by Panel

HTC Corp. (2498)’s victory in a digital- imaging patent case brought by FlashPoint Technology Inc. will be reviewed by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

A full panel of trade commissioners will look deeper into at least five aspects of the case including enforceability of the patents, according to a notice today on the Washington-based agency’s website. An ITC judge ruled in July that FlashPoint, a closely held licensing company, failed to show HTC violated its patent rights for imaging devices used in mobile phones.

HTC, Asia’s second-biggest maker of smartphones, may now need to show it didn’t violate one of the two FlashPoint patents that were remaining in the case. The dispute between FlashPoint and Taoyuan, Taiwan-based HTC centered on technology related to the way digital cameras operate, including focus and flash settings, and automatic rotation of the image depending on how the camera is held, according to the complaint.

LG Electronics Inc. (066570), Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), which had also been targeted in the case, settled with Peterborough, New Hampshire-based FlashPoint before the ITC could rule.

The ITC is a quasi-judicial federal agency that arbitrates trade disputes and has the power to block imports of products that infringe U.S. patents.

The case is In the Matter of Certain Electronic Imaging Devices, Complaint 337-726, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).

To contact the reporter on this story: William McQuillen in Washington at bmcquillen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Allan Holmes at aholmes25@bloomberg.net