Apple Counter-Sues Nokia Over Patents

adeelarshad82 writes "About two months ago Nokia sued Apple for infringing Nokia patents in its iPhone. The 10 patents in the lawsuit, filed in the US state of Delaware, relate to technologies fundamental for devices using GSM, UMTS and/or local area network (LAN) standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007. In the latest development to the case, Apple said Friday that it had filed its own suit against Nokia, countering Nokia's claims of patent infringement with its own."

Comments

Just a small part

[MikeMacK]

"The patents Apple has allegedly infringed cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption"

Uhhh...so like the whole frickin' thing...

AM I reading the subtext right?

[Teese]

Apple is complaining that Nokia isn't offering the Standards based cell phones on Reasonable and Nondiscriminatory basis? Isn't Nokia required to do that as part of submitting those patents as part of the GSM standard. It stated that in the lawsuit that nokia wanted a patent cross-license agreement with apple for the rights to the GSM patents. That's not reasonable and nondiscriminatory.

Re:AM I reading the subtext right?

[R3d M3rcury]

I'd agree, except for the fact that these patents are part of a standard which Nokia has agreed to license in a "Reasonable and Nondiscriminatory" fashion. They can't suddenly decide to charge Apple more because Apple competes with them. That is discriminatory.

Apple is not saying that they shouldn't have to pay to use those patents. They are saying that they shouldn't have to pay more or give up valuable IP to use those patents since other companies don't have to pay as much or give up IP. Making Apple do that is discriminatory.

There is no double standard. If Nokia had not agreed to license the patents in a "Reasonable and Nondiscriminatory" fashion, I'd agree with you. Of course, their patents probably would not have been used.

Resolution

[whisper_jeff]

Expect both cases to be dropped and an announcement of mutual licensing between the two companies in ... about three or four weeks.

A classic example of patents being used defensively by Apple to counter Nokia's offensive use.

Re:Resolution

[Vintermann]

Apple's multitouch patent is ridiculous, and it's one I don't think they want to license. While Nokia is doing the suing, I think this is a reasonable pre-emptive strike. That patent strangles smartphone competition.

the lawyers always win

[mister_playboy]

There will still be a winner in this case... the lawyers.

Re:Nuke Delaware from orbit

[BlackSnake112]

A lot of banks are headquartered there. Wait... good idea.

Re:I'm rubber and you're glue...

[node 3]

What's Apple supposed to do? Just eventually lose the patent case and pay up? The MAD patent defense is considered one of the "necessary evils" of the tech world.

When someone punches you, you punch back. Even if your principal is one of those idiots who, instead of trying to find out who thew the first punch, or who provoked who, just suspends both students.

Re:I'm rubber and you're glue...

[CityZen]

> When someone punches you, you punch back.

I think you're kind of missing the point. We shouldn't be behaving like cave-men in the first place.

True, the corporate environment that all companies currently exist in tends to encourage this behavior. But the nature of this corporate environment is hurting everyone (except the lawyers), so how long will it be before we can all evolve and pursue better things?

Reminds me of an anecdote concerning the game Mule. I played this game with my brothers, and we always competed against each other. When I mentioned the game to a friend of mine, she said "That's a great game. What was the richest your colony ever got?" I responded with some score I remembered at the time. She said something to the effect of "Why so low? We usually got 10x that!" It had not even occurred to me that one might try to play the game cooperatively, thus benefiting the colony as a whole, rather than the individual player.

Somehow, mankind as a whole needs to make a similar observation.

Re:I'm rubber and you're glue...

[node 3]

Apple is not doing this "because someone sued them". Apple made it clear that they were out to block Nokia from touch screen phones:

Nonsense. Nokia *has* touch screen phones. Apple did not sue them.

Apple has been building up for a patent war

Defensively, as evidenced by the fact that they did not sue first.

Nokia has no choice other than to strike before their N900 phones make them vulnerable.

That doesn't make any sense. How does initiating a suit about completely different technologies change anything with regards to touch screen patents? Nokia did not stave off a suit by their preemptive strike. In fact, they *brought it about*.

Remember Apple's lawsuit happy history was what caused the League for Programming Freedom.

Uh, that's a suit from twenty years ago, and one in which their partner (Microsoft) took proprietary knowledge from Apple to create a copy of their prized OS. This wasn't some sort of patent-troll style suit.

I guess the fact that so many seem to believe that Nokia is the agressor here

Because *they are*. They struck first. How is that so difficult?

(remember, they've been trying to Negotiate for years before this suit came out)

So, again, Nokia went after Apple first?

really does show that Apple can distort reality.

Those clever Apple folks! They can distort reality so completely that it wraps completely around on itself to where it started. Nokia struck first. Apple has been able to twist things so thoroughly that it even *looks* like Nokia struck first. Astounding!