Nokia sues Apple for infringing technology patents

Nokia Corp says it has filed a number of lawsuits against Apple Inc for violating 32 technology patents.

>>Reuters
Published : 21 Dec 2016, 08:56 PM
Updated : 21 Dec 2016, 08:57 PM

The lawsuits, filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, Germany and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover 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 licence other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products," Nokia said in a statement on Wednesday.

Apple on Tuesday had taken legal action against Acacia Research Corp and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc, accusing them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly from Apple.

Apple, Acacia and Conversant did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The logo of Apple is seen at a store in Zurich, Switzerland November 22, 2016. Reuters

Nokia was not immediately available to comment on the Apple lawsuit.

The legal action by Nokia and iPhone maker Apple appear to mark a revival of the "smartphone patent wars" that began five years ago, when Apple filed a series of patent infringement cases against Samsung Electronics around the world, with wins and losses on both sides.

Nokia, once the world's dominant mobile-phone maker, missed out on the transition to smartphones triggered by Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007.

The Finnish company sold its handset business to Microsoft two years ago, leaving it with its telecom network equipment business and a patent portfolio.

But this year, Microsoft sold its Nokia feature phone business to a new company called HMD Global and Nokia agreed to a 10-year licensing deal with HMD, which continues to market low-cost Nokia phones and plans to introduce new Nokia smartphone models in 2017.