Recent reports claim that the Finnish smartphone manufacturer, HMD Global, has stopped the retail of most of its smartphones within the German and Swiss consumer markets owing to the lawsuit filed against HMD Global by VoiceAgeEVS LLC (VAEVS).
VoiceAge EVS LLC is a company that licenses a global, standard-essential patent portfolio relating to voice and audio technologies for smartphones and other similar products. The company sued HMD Global over patents related to VoLTE and the Enhanced Voice Service standard that it is based on.
VAEVS applied for a sales boycott back in December and for now, courts seem to be backing it. Previously, the company had sued other manufacturers like Apple, TCL and Lenovo over the use of voice standards to make VoLTE calls over the LTE network as well. However, those manufacturers settled matters with VoiceAgeEVS LLC outside of the court.
While HMD Global was one of the manufacturers that used the voice standards without permission from VAEVS, which led them to a lawsuit followed by a sales ban in Germany. Additionally, heading over to the Nokia Germany and Nokia Switzerland websites, you’ll only find the G21 and G11 with no mention of 2021 phones or older. The X20, X10 and others are available in the UK, however.
The ban, however, comes at a most unfortunate time for HMD Global, given that the company started seeing positive financial reports after 4 years of being in the business. Also, with the Mobile World Congress (MWC) just a few days away, a ban was the last thing the company needed.
