IP-Com extends its patent reach towards HTC in Germany
IPEG: 
In our blog: “Do Not Blame Patent Trolls” of February 2, we touched upon a new player in the patent arena in Europe, IP-Com in Germany. Since then the debate has heated up whether NPEs (Non Practicing Entities) have reached Europe. They did (actually a while ago). In a Dow Jones Newswire, hot from the press, Stuart Weinberg reports on the background of the patents IP-Com bought from Bosch to subsequently assert those against Nokia in a German court.
Just very recently HTC, a major Taiwanese player on the electronics market in Europe became the next target of Europe’s latest addition to the family of NPEs, IP-Com, attacking HTC’s mobile communications handhelds. IP-Com (from Munich) obtained from the Frankfurt court a preliminary injunction (“Einstweilige Verfügung”) against HTC. This is an ex parte court order obtained without hearing HTC. Next week HTC will get its chance in the District Court (Landesgericht) Frankfurt opposing this injunction.
It’s a déjà vu. In our blog “Sisvel brings Patent Wild West into Germany” we commented about previous tactics another NPE used in getting SanDisk on their knees. IP-Com opts for the a more common approach, using the possibility to obtain a preliminary injunction. Germany used to be one of the few countries where an ex parte injunction, even in complex patent cases, could be obtained. No longer so. Since the enactment in most EU laws of the European Directive 2004/48 of 30 April 2004 on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights[1], every EU country has the possibility to obtain such ex parte injunctions. The idea behind is that those injunctions were needed to fight against counterfeit and would commonly be used against imports of counterfeit consumer goods, not in patent disputes. The reason being that patent cases are usually about either defending market share or obtaining license…