Smartphone makers HTC - which doesn't exactly need any more bad news - has suffered a blow after its HTC One Mini and HTC One Max were banned from sale in the UK.
The diminutive and extra-large versions of its very well-received One smartphone will be removed from sale as of Friday 6 December following a patent dispute with Nokia.
Nokia claimed that the One Mini violated some of its patents relating to a specific data transmitter, and a High Court judge agreed - only staying a ban on the HTC One itself because the potential "catastrophic" harm to HTC outweighed that to Nokia.
Judge Arnold ruled that HTC's other phones were to be removed from sale, almost immediately - pending an application for an appeal, which HTC is almost certain to make. Meanwhile HTC has agreed not to import any more of the handsets while the case continues, though it is working with its tech partners to get around the ban by using different components.
The judge also rejected HTC's argument that Nokia was only interested in money:
"All patent owners are only interested in money. The whole purpose of a patent is to enable the proprietor to extract money from exploitation of the patented invention."
The judge in the case also apparently revealed the release date of HTC's next flagship in his judgement. The BBC reported that the judge said a new model would be released in March or April - information typically kept secret.