HTC Drops Stolen HDR Mic Technology from One Flagship Smartphone

From DailyTech: In a somewhat unusual move, HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) has seemingly conceded it made a mistake in terms of intellectual property and has dropped a key feature of its HTC One smartphone.

The company had contracted Geneva, Switzerland-based STMicroelectrics N.V. (EPA:STM) to provide a higher quality microphone to it. The result was a "dual membrane HDR", which promised to capture subtle details of audio and speech, similar to bulkier studio mics of the past.

But it was discovered in teardowns by Nokia Oyj. (HEX:NOK1V) that STMicroelectronics had apparently stolen the mic technology used in Lumia phones from Nokia. Nokia dubbed the patented technology "high amplitude audio capture".

While HTC may have been an unwitting party to this apparently blatant theft and transfer of intellectual property, it was still struck by a Nokia trade lawsuit in the Netherlands. Nokia was eyeing to roll out the ban in other regions, including the U.S. if HTC didn't act.

Instead of fighting Nokia's claims, it appears HTC has conceded the fight, dropping the mic altogether.

HTC also clarifies the nature of the Netherlands ban in a statement, commenting that Reuters misreported on the lawsuit, and that it was not sued. The suit only applied to STMicrolelectronics. And while the HTC One might have been banned if it had willfully continued to buy and use the microphones, it was allowed to use up its existing stock as the Netherlands judge said that HTC was unaware of the IP theft.

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