Now, Nokia has fired fresh salvo in this legal dispute. In a complaint that the company has filed with the US International Trade Commission, Nokia has claimed that ”
” of Apple 's products infringe upon seven of Nokia's proprietary innovations. These patents relate to the devices' user interface, camera, antenna and power management technologies.
Noting that Nokia has been one of the pioneers in mobile phone technology, Paul Melin, the General Manager of Patent Licensing at Nokia says that Apple 's patent violations have undermined Nokia's efforts at innovating. He says
“Nokia has been the leading developer of many key technologies in small electronic devices. This action is about protecting the results of such pioneering development. While our litigation in Delaware is about Apple 's attempt to free-ride on the back of Nokia investment in wireless standards, the ITC case filed today is about Apple 's practice of building its business on Nokia's proprietary innovation.”
Apple has not responded to this new lawsuit. However, it is important that we revisit some of Apple 's viewpoints in the lawsuit that the company filed earlier. In their earlier statement, Apple had claimed that while they did not infringe upon any of Nokia's patents, any such violation if noted by the law were solely because Nokia did not offer them fair licensing terms. It is to be seen how Apple responds to this new lawsuit.
What do you think will Apple do now? Do you see a fresh lawsuit being filed or do you think the companies will go for an off-court settlement? We hope Nokia is not banking on an off-court settlement and instead working hard on an
instead. Do tell us your opinion in the comments section below.