Nokia’s injunction over mic component won’t affect HTC One for now

The legal drama over the design of microphones in the HTC One, which allegedly breached a non-disclosure agreement between Nokia and STMicroelectronicsrecently made the news. According to Phandroid, STMicroelectronics, the manufacturer of the component, sold the component to HTC before signing the exclusivity agreement with Nokia. Apparently, HTC is not to be blamed and will continue to use them until its microphone supply is exhausted. And after that, HTC will be move on to using a different and probably improved microphone design. This means the HTC One won’t face any more delays.

No more trouble for HTC...hopefully

According to the deal struck between Nokia and STMicroelectronics, the latter wasn’t supposed to sell its microphone components to anyone except Nokia for a limited period of time. It is the same microphone component used in the Lumia 720. The problem started when HTC bought HDR microphone parts from STMicroelectronics. This made Nokia file an injunction in the Amsterdam district court over the technology used in the HTC One, the Taiwanese company’s flagship smartphone.

While this could have been a huge blow for HTC, apparently HTC won’t be affected or blamed any further. The judgment against STM states that "HTC can continue to use microphones already purchased from STM in its products." HTC also claims, “They were purchased in good-faith."

Nokia and HTC, have been slugging it out in courts around the world. Nokia alleges that more than 40 of its patents have been used without license by HTC in Germany, the US and the UK. There’s already an injunction in Germany against HTC phones that were found to have violated some of the Finnish company’s patents.

The company has been struggling with delays, and the legal limbo over the microphone could have only worsened its situation. Last month, an anonymous HTC executive was heard saying that makers and suppliers of components do not regard HTC as a Tier-1 manufacturer any longer.