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23 December 2016Patents

Nokia squares off against Apple in series of patent suits

Nokia has taken on Apple in a series of patent suits filed worldwide focusing on iPads and iPhones.

In a  statement released on Wednesday, December 21, Nokia confirmed it had taken action at the Regional Courts in Düsseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany, and at the  US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Then, yesterday, December 22, Nokia released another  statement explaining that it had filed more complaints against Apple.

There are now 40 patents involved in the actions, “covering technologies such as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding”.

Nokia has filed actions in 11 countries: Germany, Finland, the UK, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Hong Kong, Japan and the US. An action with the US International Trade Commission has also been filed.

“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,” said Nokia.

Ilkka Rahnasto, head of patent business at Nokia, added that through sustained investment in research and development, “Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products”.

“After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights,” he said.

On Tuesday, Apple filed a competition lawsuit against Acacia Research Corporation, Core Wireless and other companies, accusing the firms of colluding with Nokia to “obtain from Nokia thousands of patents as part of a plan to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly and anti-competitively” from Apple and others.

According to the claim, Nokia avoids licensing its own portfolio “directly and transparently” and has divided its patent portfolio between a number of patent assertion entities (PAEs).

It alleged that Nokia then enlisted “mercenary PAEs”, including Acacia and Core Wireless, “that have offered their services aggressively to threaten, sue, and thereby extract exorbitant, above-market royalties from cell phone makers”.

Last week, WIPR  reported that Core Wireless had been awarded $7.3 million in damages by a jury in a patent claim against Apple.

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