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Nokia: Google's Nexus 7 Tablet Infringes Our Patents

Posted by timothy on from the this-is-a-storm-and-that's-got-ports dept.

walterbyrd writes with a story at The Inquirer outlining the latest volley in the patent wars surrounding mobile hardware, this time aimed at the new Aus-built Nexus 7 tablet from Google by Nokia, in which the company's spokesman says, "Nokia has more than 40 licensees, mainly for its standards essential patent portfolio, including most of the mobile device manufacturers. Neither Google nor Asus is licensed under our patent portfolio. 'Companies who are not yet licensed under our standard essential patents should simply approach us and sign up for a license.'"

15 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Good ol' Microsoft by Severus+Snape · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can't prove it but we all know this is another one of Microsoft's proxy wars.

    1. Re:Good ol' Microsoft by hsmith · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Wouldn't doubt it. It is really amazing the difference between debuting the Surface v the Nexus 7. The demos were unbelievable different.

      Hell, look how the demo of Google Glass went v the Surface. A toy project performed light years better than the Surface. MS has fallen from grace, badly.

    2. Re:Good ol' Microsoft by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Or it could be Nokia being ridiculously desperate. Microsoft has NOTHING to gain by patent trolling Google. Zero. The Nexus 7 isn't competing with the Surface.

      Nokia on the other hand, does.

      So which is more likely, Nokia is trashing about in an attempt to remain relevant or Microsoft is fighting a secret proxy patent war?

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    3. Re:Good ol' Microsoft by Circuit+Breaker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      MS ever had grace?

      They've been having demos crash and bluescreen since forever.

    4. Re:Good ol' Microsoft by dc29A · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Or it could be Nokia being ridiculously desperate. Microsoft has NOTHING to gain by patent trolling Google. Zero.

      Care to explain why HTC and Samsung are paying Android royalties to MS? MS always wanted to prove that Android is not free, what better method to achieve this than patent trolling.

    5. Re:Good ol' Microsoft by Riceballsan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Nokia was under completely different management 2 years ago, which essentially makes every point on behavior prior to the microsoft deals entirely unrelated points.

  2. Wifi patents by chrb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I guessed that this was probably something GSM related, but TFA says "It's believed that the patents in question have to do with the IEEE 802.11 WiFi standard". It's hard to imagine that Asus doesn't already have a license for essential wifi patents, they must have sold millions of devices over the last few years that have featured wifi as standard.

    Bit odd that this has not been an issue until the moment that they release a Google branded device.

  3. Dear Nokia... by JasonDT · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Fuck off and die already... A shame too, I really used to like their hardware... Why oh why does patent trolling have to become the new business model for dying companies...

    --
    "It's not that I don't understand what your going through. Its that I just don't care"
  4. Can no one else see where this is going? by gman003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The whole massive patent portfolios thing was hinged on mutually assured destruction. Everyone was violating at least one of everyone's patents, but as long as you either had enough of an armory yourself, or paid your dues to the patent portfolios, you were safe (disregarding wild patent trolls). Sort of like the actual Cold War - as long as you had enough nukes, or allied yourself with someone who did, you were safe (disregarding "rogue nations" and proxy wars).

    Well, this Patent Cold War is becoming a Patent World War.

    It's been going on for a while now, ever since the smartphone lawsuits first stated, but it's ramping up. They're coming faster and faster now, and going for bigger and bigger things. Pretty soon, you'll be seeing injunctions against entire companies, or multi-trillion-dollar fines.

    I expect, in the end, most of those involved will end up out-of-business. And, hopefully, it will end with a massive patent system reform.

    1. Re:Can no one else see where this is going? by savuporo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I expect, in the end, most of those involved will end up out-of-business. And, hopefully, it will end with a massive patent system reform.

      You know, i get scared whenever anyone calls for a reform. I mean no doubt that the current system is broken, but i dread to see what the current powers would come up with to replace the current system.

      There was some sanity and integrity still around when the last system was designed - and now it has outlived it's usefulness, but we are also all out of sanity and integrity.

      --
      http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
  5. Ugh by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even though it's got nothing to do with Apple, I'm still going to blame them anyway since, as we all know, everyone copies off Apple, be it rounded corners or patent trolling

    :P

    --
    Summation 2
  6. Are we reading too much into this? by IrrepressibleMonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There's not a lot to go in the Inquirer article (there never is in my experience), but isn't it possible that Nokia's stance is entirely reasonable? Maybe it does hold standards essential patents relevant to the Nexus tablet and is entitled to FRAND payments. It's not threatening to seek injunctions. On the face of it, Nokia is seeking payment for licenses that it believes it is entitled to.

    Not sure how we get from here to alleging Microsoft-led conspiracies... At least wait for the Google/Asus responses before taking sides.

  7. Defending royalties is obligate by goombah99 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Can't prove it but we all know this is another one of Microsoft's proxy wars.

    Never know, Apple might have caught on and started a few themselves.

    Apple had to license the Nokia patents a while back. It is likely the agreement specified that if there were royalties they could not be larger than anyone else pays. This puts the onus on Nokia to defend it's patents in the future or apple might clawback the agreement.

    More to the point, noika's patent portfolio is prodigious and that R&D was not created for trolling but to pave the early and future path of mobile. It is thus not surprising that many things we now (a few years later) take for granted were patentable innovations not very long ago, and Nokia holds them. Even though Nokia is now a crippled weakling in the smart phone market, you have to remember they once were a top athlete before they started taking Performance enhancing drugs (windows). Their future return to profitability is going to depend on a steady patent royalty stream to be able to attract new investors.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:Defending royalties is obligate by Tough+Love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      See, Nokia is talking about "standards essential" patents. A situation that needs to be outlawed. Granting a monopoly on a new invention is one thing, mandating by a standard that everybody must use that new invention is quite another. And quite outrageous. This widespread practice has only flourished in the past because it has flown under the radar of the average citizen. It can't be allowed to continue.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  8. Just like the scox scam by walterbyrd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Microsoft chose scox as a proxie for the same reason. Scox was dead in the water before they filed their lawsuit against IBM - about ten years ago now.

    Scox had gobs of msft money to gain, and nothing to lose.

    Nokia is the sequel to scox.