Recently, Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court made a decision in the first instance involving patent infringement dispute of Nokia Corporation (hereinafter as Nokia). The Court held that, Nokia lacked of factual and legal basis on its standard essential patents for its interpretation in the scope of patent protection, and therefore, mobile phones, involved in the case, of Shanghai Huaqin Communication Technology Co. (hereinafter as Huaqin Company), were beyond the scope of Nokia's patent protection, and the Court rejected the claims of Nokia.

It is reported that, in this case Nokia accused mainly for its involved patent claims 4, which defines its units saving location data as "location area".
   
In the case hearings, the court made an analysis on the concept of "location area" and "cells" in Nokia's patent documents in accordance with the Patent Law and the interpretation by Supreme People's Court. In this case, Nokia referred all areas with management functions collectively as "location areas" in the patent document, which was not in consistent with the definition of "location area" in relevant industry standard.
   
In the decision, the court held that Nokia's interpretation of the disputed patent had a significant expansion, meaning its loss of the standard basis for the disputed patent, which led to inherent contradictions with Nokia's claims that the disputed patents were its standard essential patents. Therefore, the court made the decision. Some industry experts said that, the court identified whether the disputed patents were Nokia's standard essential patents, which is an active try by China's courts on identifying standard essential patents in judicial proceedings on related patents.

(China IP News)