Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, is declaring victory after the English High Court ruled that most of the patents held by wireless firm InterDigital aren’t essential for mobile operators who want to offer UMTS 3G wireless data services. However, the court did not through out all of InterDigital’s patent claims, ruling that one of the company’s patents is essential to UMTS WCDMA phone standard used in Europe, effectively leaving InterDigital with two patents (Nokia withdrew its challenge on another) that are “essential” to the 3G phone standard supported by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.
