Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Thomas B. Pender has thrown out the Google and HTC’s patent exhaustion defense against Nokia in the ongoing patent case in US. Here is the title of the judgement, “(1) Granting Complainants[‘] Motion for Summary Determination that HTC and Google Cannot Establish Their Exhaustion Defense and (2) Denying Respondents[‘] Motion for Summary Determination on Patent Exhaustion”.
Even though HTC and Google can appeal against this judgement in the higher courts, FOSSPatents reports that such a move will not make any difference.
Google and HTC can appeal Judge Pender’s order by asking the Commission, the six-member decision-making body at the top of the U.S. trade agency, for a review. I doubt that this would change the outcome. Its patent exhaustion (and related) theories in Germany also failed to get any traction with the courts there.
Source: FOSS Patents