HTC v Nokia: a brief comparison of UK and US exhaustion/first sale doctrines

摘要

This article looks at the recent patent infringement case involving the Finnish telecoms group Nokia and the rival Taiwan-based HTC Corporation. By virtue of an agreement between Nokia and Qualcomm, a company which supplied some of the chips in the alleged infringing HTC smartphones, HTC argued that Nokia could be deemed to have consented to the allegedly infringing acts, or else the sale exhausted Nokia's patent rights. Mr Justice Arnold's rejection of HTC "s defences raises once again whether the doctrine of international exhaustion of patent rights should be a shield or a sword.