Major handset makers face patent investigation in the U.S.

The U.S. International Trade Commission will carry out an investigation into claims by InterDigital that its wireless patents are being infringed by a number of mobile phone manufacturers, including Samsung, Nokia, ZTE and Huawei.

InterDigital Communications has made the standard request that the USITC issues an exclusion order and cease and desist orders, and now it’s up to ITC’s Chief Administrative Law Judge to assign the case to one of the six administrative law judges (ALJ), who will schedule and hold an evidentiary hearing.

The asserted patents relate to wireless devices and systems with 3G and/or LTE capabilities:

• The ’966 and ’847 patents relate to improvements to the way a mobile device gains access to a cellular CDMA system.
• The ’970 patent relates to a technique for communication between user equipment and one or more wireless networks.
• The ’151 patent relates to an improvement in the provision of control information to devices operated in a wireless communications environment, such as on an LTE-based wireless communications network.
• The ’830 and ’636 patents relate to improvements to the way a subscriber unit gains access to a cellular CDMA system, and
• The ’406 patent relates to improved automatic power control for a CDMA system.

We’ll see where this will go and whether InterDigital will be able to get some money from major handset makers.