Remember last year Nokia sued Apple over violating its patent on wireless technology on the iPhone? Apple counter-sued, claiming Nokia had stolen 13 patents from the company. Now Nokia is back again this year, suing Apple for stealing proprietary technologies for the iPad, and Apple’s stock has taken an early 5% hit in trading.
In the three years since the iPhone was introduced, Apple has seized Nokia’s position as the company that defines the high-end smartphone market. Nokia, which took mobile phones to the Internet more than 10 years ago with its keyboard-based Communicator, was slow to move to the touch screens featured on the bestselling iPhone and on the iPad, introduced this year.
We don’t know whether this step came as a revenge but Apple and Nokia likely won’t be in court for the next two years for the iPhone suit. And Apple’s already evaded itself with outstanding suits against Google and HTC for violating the iPhone’s touch-screen tech. To reconsider, the world’s largest cell phone maker is suing the world’s largest smart-phone marker who’s counter-suing and also suing the world’s faster growing smart-phone operating system designer.
But what does Nokia has to say on this? “We’ve taken this step to protect the results of our pioneering development and to put an end to continued unlawful use of Nokia’s innovation,” said Paul Melin, general manager of patent licensing at Nokia. The company also said that during the past two decades Nokia has invested about $51bn in research and development and has rounded up 11,000 patents. However, patent arguments are common in the technology industry and often end with some kind of licensing agreement, correspondents say.
The Nokia lawsuit came on the day Apple announced that its iPad tablet computer will go on sale in nine countries outside the US on 28 May.
Tags: google, htc, iPad, Iphone, patents, research and development, tablet computer