Vodafone Germany stops selling HTC smartphones due to patent battle

Vodafone has stopped selling some HTC smartphones in Germany in its stores and online shop. The reason lies with patent claims from the Saint Lawrence Communications company, which relate to HD voice technology.

The HTC devices One A9, One M8s and Desire 626 and those of Vodafone’s own Smart prime 7, Smart prime 6, Smart speed 6 and Smart ultra 6 have been withdrawn from the market at Vodafone. The reason lies in the patent battle between HTC and some other manufacturers with Saint Lawrence Communications.

This German company claims that manufacturers with numerous devices infringe its patent rights with regard to adaptive multi-rate wideband. This audio encoding technology is used for HD voice. In addition to HTC, ZTE and TCL Communication Technology, the maker of Alcatel devices, allegedly infringe patents with certain devices. According to Mobiflip, which was the first to report on the sales freeze, Vodafone can only resume sales if HTC and Saint Lawrence settle their dispute.

At the end of last year, Deutsche Telekom had to stop selling HTC devices. Then because Acacia Research Group claimed that HTC infringed patents on speech encryption.