Patent dispute heats up between Nokia and Apple

The patent dispute between Nokia, the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile telephones, and its American competitor Apple is heating up.

      Reuters News Agency reported on Tuesday that Nokia has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in the Delaware District Court in the United States.

      The latest twist is linked with Nokia’s complaint filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) accusing Apple of patent violations.

      The ITC cannot order anyone to pay patent fees - it can only ban the import of products in violation of patents.

Nokia says that Apple is in violation of seven of its implementation patents in practically all of its products - computers, iPod music players, and its iPhone mobile telephones.

      Nokia says that the patents improve the function of mobile phones, cut production costs, reduce energy consumption, and allow the manufacture of smaller handsets.

      Implementation patents are inventions that do not belong to a technology standard, and which equipment manufacturers use to get competitive advantages for themselves. The holders of the patents are not required to allow competitors to use them, even in return for monetary compensation.

The dispute heated up in October, when Nokia accused Apple of violating ten of its “essential patents” - patents which are seen as essential parts of a particular technology standard. The most common technology standards in mobile telephony are GSM and WCDMA (3G).

      In December Apple filed a suit of its own in the Delaware court, in which it alleged that Nokia had infringed on 13 of the company’s patents. Apple also says that Nokia has refused to licence its essential patents under fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms.

      The weightiest patent portfolios in the mobile telephone and network technology fields are with Nokia, network device manufacturer Ericsson, and the semiconductor company Qualcomm. On the practical level, it is impossible to manufacture mobile telephones without these inventions.

Both Ericsson and Qualcomm have contracts with Apple on using their respective patents, but Apple has not managed to reach agreement with Nokia on licencing agreements.

      Nearly all mobile telephone manufacturers except Apple have agreed to Nokia’s terms.

      In technology patent disputes it is common for the parties to face each other in a number of courts in many different countries. Usually the companies ultimately settle the dispute after spending millions of euros on legal costs.