Hyundai Motor Co. won its appeal of a $34 million verdict that said South Korea’s largest automaker infringed a Texas company’s patent for computerizing the sale of car parts. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday said Orion IP LLC’s patent was invalid and vacated the verdict stating that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict. Orion, a patent-licensing firm based in Longview, Texas, had sued 20 automakers, claiming infringement of a patent for a way to help a salesperson select auto parts without relying on catalogs or order forms.  The other auto companies settled before trial.  Hyundai argued that companies other than Orion had come up with the idea of electric parts catalogs in 1987, and the patented computer-assisted system a year later wasn’t different enough to be considered a new invention.

Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC has singed a patent-sharing deal with Microsoft, allowing the company to use Microsoft technology in its Android-based smartphones. The deal, worth an undisclosed sum, will allow HTC direct access to the Microsoft patent portfolio in order to make smarter and more consumer-friendly Android-based handsets. A non-disclosure agreement prevents both companies from specifying exactly which Microsoft technologies would be used. Horacio Gutierrez, a corporate Vice President and deputy general counsel in Microsoft’s licensing and intellectual property division, said in a statement that “HTC and Microsoft have a long history of technical and commercial collaboration, and agreement is an example of how industry leaders can reach commercial arrangements that address intellectual property.

This patent licensing deal comes as HTC prepares to defend itself in a law suit filed by Apple, which accuses HTC of ripping of Apple’s technology in its range of Android-based handsets.