Apple Countersues Nokia on Patents Infringement
12/15/2009 10:34:00 PM - 1 comments
It’s again the clash of the titans as Apple Inc. issued an announcement on December 11, 2009 countersuing Nokia Corp. for purportedly infringing 13 of Apple's patents. This announcement follows quickly on the heels of similar patent- infringement charges levied by Nokia in October, 2009. Apple Inc. has also made a strong denial of the charges levied on it.Nokia has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Delaware, where the smartphone giant alleges Apple iPhone of violating 10 patents covering technologies indispensable for connecting cellphones to the most widely used wireless networks. Responding to the allegations filed in the suit, Apple Inc. General Counsel Bruce Sewell has challenged other companies to compete with Apple by inventing their own technologies, instead of just stealing theirs.
Nokia sues, Apple Countersues…..the blame game continues
The blame game between the two smartphone giants is taking an ugly turn as both take the battle to court. Although, it was always a cold war simmering in the backdrop; it all started when in May 2009, Nokia made a demand that Apple Inc. should pay a royalty to license its patents, which were almost three times the standard industry practice. This garnered strong objection from Apple who termed it "a flagrant violation."
Not only that, Nokia again took the liberty of filing a suit against Apple around September 2009, making demands that Apple pay ‘highly disproportionate royalties’. Apple Inc. has now decided to make a hard-hitting reply to Nokia’s occasional fling in raising an Apple patent controversy. In a bid to make its intention clear, Apple in its counterclaim has reiterated that Nokia has sought to gain an unjust competitive advantage over Apple by "charging unwarranted fees" for its patents considered essential to building cell phones. It has also accused Nokia of seeking access to Apple's intellectual property.
In a more clarified response, Apple struck back, denying the claims made by Nokia against it relating to infringement of patents; and countersuing Nokia on charges of using patents (describing methods for helping computers recognize attached cell phones, abstracting colors from graphics and other features) awarded to Apple as in several of Nokia's models, including the S60, E71 and 5310.
Nokia pioneered cellphones, Apple pioneered smartphones
Nokia has been one of the pioneers in the development and sale of cellphones that were primarily used for making calls in early phases’ while Apple asserts technological advances, together with many that it has pioneered. This has resulted in the development of smartphones, which can apart from making calls, send and receive email, surf the Internet and even run software applications. It may sometimes sound uncanny, but it is fact that Nokia's slow response to the shift in consumer preferences led Apple to come up with the iPhone.
Posted: Seuli.B
I think Nokia missed the boat! How different would this be if Nokia had made the 770 and the N800 was phones as well as computers with the support of a carrier such as AT&T