Düsseldorf, 18.11.2016 – France Brevets has once again successfully marketed its NFC patent portfolio: The French investment fund has announced that it will grant worldwide licenses to the consumer electronics company HTC. Thereby, the Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer is entitled to use the advanced NFC technology in its products. The technology enables contactless data transmission and can, for example, be used for payment via smartphone in supermarkets. The manufacturers Samsung, LG, and Sony had previously also acquired licenses from the portfolio. The NFC licensing program also includes patents from the companies Inside Secure and Orange.
In a lawsuit between France Brevets and HTC, the district court of Düsseldorf in March 2015 ruled that HTC had infringed NFC patents held by France Brevets. The Federal Patent Court in January 2016 then upheld one of the asserted patents. HTC had filed an appeal against the ruling. “The license agreement that has now been negotiated is a further step towards expanding the license program and securely marketing the ever more important NFC technology”, explained patent attorney Gottfried Schüll of Cohausz & Florack who represents France Brevets together with attorney-at-law Axel Verhauwen from the firm Krieger Mes Graf v. der Groeben.
