IPCom has won a victory this week from a court in Germany about a continuing patent battle it is fighting with Nokia (News - Alert) and HTC.

According to a report from Reuters, the court ruled that IPCom’s amended patent, which protects technology that connect phones to networks, was valid.

The ruling could be significant because about a year ago a local court in Germany chose not to ban the sale of Nokia’s and HTC’s (News - Alert) handsets in Germany until a ruling was made on whether the IPCom patents were valid, according to Reuters.

IPCom had asked the court last year for an injunction to stop having its two rivals from selling the handsets, Reuters (News - Alert) reported.

IPCom explained in a 2009 statement that the patents “were developed by Bosch as part of its R&D for its pioneering car telephony systems, which evolved into the mobile telephony systems we know today.”

In 2007, Bosch sold the patents to IPCom.

IPCom and Nokia have been involved in the legal battle over the patents for several years.

TMCnet reported in 2008 that Nokia said the patents involved in the continuing lawsuit were invalid and have not been infringed.

A few years ago, IPCom requested what was about 12 billion euros ($17.77 billion at the time) from Nokia, according to TMCnet. But Nokia said it was not going to pay the money, and IP-Com then decided to sue Nokia, according to the TMCnet report.

The legal battle between the companies also wound up before the powerful European Commission. In 2009, Nokia complained to the EC about IPCom, alleging last year that IPCom was violating European law on competition issues. Nokia withdrew the complaint, and the EC said it will not start the legal inquiry, according to an IPCom statement.