Stubborn Corporations Clash as Nokia Sues Apple

By Kerrie Spencer, staff technology writer – June 2, 2010

In what appears to be an escalating war of who paid what to whom, or who didn’t pay what to whom, some believe Apple is coming out looking a tad inferior for wear in the lawsuit Nokia launched against it for patent infringement. What’s at stake? Nokia has already dropped the gauntlet and gone after Apple for stepping on their patented toes in ten infringement claims, but they’ve now added yet another claim. That new claim says the iPad 3G infringes on five more patents. The bubbling cauldron just got a good shot from someone stoking the legal flames under the vat. The latest claims allege Apple infringed on its speech and data patent, three patents dealing with antenna design, and Nokia’s design of an app that uses a positioning data patent. No one could possibly guess how this is going to turn out, but suffice it to say it’s been brewing since October 2009; that’s when Nokia filed suit against Apple. They stated at that time that Apple had infringed on patents dealing with speech coding, encryption coding, security and wireless data. Evidently those items were allegedly used in the production of Apple’s iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.

Things got hot under the collar when Apple chose to countersue and claim that Nokia’s phones infringed on 13 of its patents. Nokia asked to have that suit dismissed. Now, here is where things get a bit strange. Nokia indicated it had parlayed license agreements with 40 handset makers, and that it “attempted” to do the same with Apple but could not reach an agreement.

Nokia’s lawsuit says that Apple using their technology caused them financial harm and loss of market share. They cite the information that Apple is charging less for their product because they didn’t develop it. Due to Apple’s alleged flagrant infringement on their patents, Nokia is asking for undisclosed damages, attorney’s fees, court fees and a jury trial.

There is one question that really stands out in this piece and that is, if Nokia already did a handshake deal with 40 other handset manufacturers for a license from Nokia, then did they really offer the same to Apple and if so, why didn’t Apple comply?

Sources

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Nokia-Has-More-Trouble-for-Apple/story.xhtml

http://www.geekopedia.us/news-rss/nokias-apple-lawsuit-deepens-long-running-conflict-2/

http://www.khabrein.info/news/Nokia_Sues_Apple_Again__Nokia_Sues_Apple_Over_Technology_Used_in_IPhone__IPad_Update5_1273514603/

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nokia-Sues-Apple-Again-141645.shtml

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