Mobile phone wars: Nokia sues Apple over patents
- 7 years ago
A case of sour grapes vs. the mighty Apple? The iPhone maker certainly thinks so.
Nokia, once the global leader in mobile phone manufacturing, has filed lawsuits against Apple in both the US and Germany – covering patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.
“Since agreeing a licence covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions, which are used by many of Apple’s products,” Nokia said in a statement.
The Finnish company, which used to be the world’s largest mobile phone maker, missed out on the transition to smartphones, triggered by the launch of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, and has since sold off much of his business.
Nokia’s legal action came a day after Apple itself launched a suit of its own against two companies, Acacia and Conversant, that it accuses of colluding with Nokia to “extract exorbitant revenue” from the US tech giant.
Acacia is a publicly traded patent licensing firm based in California. One of its subsidiaries sued Apple for patent infringement and was awarded USD 22 million by a Texas jury in September.Conversant, which claims to own thousands of patents, announced last week that a Silicon Valley jury had awarded one of its units a USD 7.3 million settlement in an infringement case against Apple involving two smartphone patents.
Apple’s spokesman Josh Rosenstock said that Nokia is refusing to licence their patents on a fair basis and called it a “patent troll.”
Nokia, once the global leader in mobile phone manufacturing, has filed lawsuits against Apple in both the US and Germany – covering patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.
“Since agreeing a licence covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions, which are used by many of Apple’s products,” Nokia said in a statement.
The Finnish company, which used to be the world’s largest mobile phone maker, missed out on the transition to smartphones, triggered by the launch of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, and has since sold off much of his business.
Nokia’s legal action came a day after Apple itself launched a suit of its own against two companies, Acacia and Conversant, that it accuses of colluding with Nokia to “extract exorbitant revenue” from the US tech giant.
Acacia is a publicly traded patent licensing firm based in California. One of its subsidiaries sued Apple for patent infringement and was awarded USD 22 million by a Texas jury in September.Conversant, which claims to own thousands of patents, announced last week that a Silicon Valley jury had awarded one of its units a USD 7.3 million settlement in an infringement case against Apple involving two smartphone patents.
Apple’s spokesman Josh Rosenstock said that Nokia is refusing to licence their patents on a fair basis and called it a “patent troll.”