There’s couple of designs in the mobile business that are immediately incorporated into a brand. It would be hard to argue Nokia’s N9 line of designs would not be one of those. HTC 8X Windows Phone has received a lot of “they copied Nokia” comments and i can’t help to think that Nokia has had influence on HTC.
There could also be some technical reasons Nokia could be suing HTC. In Lumia 800 Finnish launch it was asked had Nokia patented the design, Lumia 800 Product Manager said that they had patented manufacturing process involving the design, but not the design itself.
Times have changed since then as Apple received major win over Samsung and Nokia has licensed many of it’s patents to “patent trolls” that seek the best income for Nokia and for themselves.
N9 on the left, Lumia 800 on the right
I’m fine with Nokia going against HTC if it sees reason for it (so far this is just a rumor). To me HTC has always had one of the most boring designs in the industry and suddenly coming up with this colorful unibody polycarbonate design with curved glass on their Windows Phone, how could you not ask if HTC has taken influence out of Nokia. Design that at the moment is Windows Phone.
