Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has been found guilty of willfully infringing two communication patents owned by 3G Licensing, a subsidiary of Sisvel patent pool, in a US court.

According to FOSS Patents, on October 16, 2023, a jury in the US District Court for the District of Delaware ruled that HTC violated US Patent No. 7995091 and US Patent No. 6856818, which relate to video calling over wireless networks.

As a result, the jury awarded 3G Licensing a total of $89.7 million (about 655.8 million yuan) in patent licensing fees from HTC.

In the trial of US Patent No. 7995091, the jury determined that HTC had 19,535,249 products that infringed the patent, and required HTC to pay $0.37 per product in licensing fees, totaling $7,228,042.13.

In the trial of US Patent No. 6856818, the jury found that HTC’s 2,551,265 Verizon products constituted infringement, and ordered HTC to pay $0.37 per product in patent fees, totaling $943,968.05. In addition, HTC’s 184,295 Google-Fi products were subject to a patent fee of $0.43 per product, totaling $795,196.85.

FOSS Patents pointed out that 3G Licensing apparently participated in Sisvel’s 3G/4G mobile communication patent licensing program, and Sisvel’s published “compliant rate” (for willing licensees) for 3G UMTS was only €0.35. However, in this case, the jury determined that HTC paid $0.37-$0.43 per product in damages, which was obviously higher than the license fee in Sisvel’s 3G UMTS.

It is reported that the lawsuit between the two parties started in 2017, when 3G Licensing filed an infringement lawsuit against HTC after the licensing negotiations broke down, accusing HTC of infringing two key wireless standard patents of 3G Licensing with its LTE-enabled One, Bolt, Desire and other smartphones. At the same time, 3G Licensing also claimed that Google Pixel phones using HTC technology also infringed patents, but Google was not named as a defendant in this case.