Today, French telecom giant Nokia filed suit in U.S. District Court against Apple alleging copyright infringement on 10 of its technology patents. The company says the patents “relate to technologies fundamental to making devices,” that are compatible with GSM, UMTS, or 3G WCDMA, and wireless LAN technologies.
The claims involve wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption technologies. Nokia says Apple has been in violation of these patents since the iPhone launched in 2007. Additionally, Nokia says it has invested more than $60 Billion in research and development, but says Apple has not agreed to appropriate licensing terms for these technologies.
Nokia, which recently posted a loss of $836 Million, parhaps sees Apple as a worthy target, especially in light of Apple’s recently reported 7% increase in iPhone sales. I’m not saying that Nokia is suing Apple simply for economic reasons, but seeing as one company is going down while another is going up, the timing sure is interesting.
No matter what the relative merits of Nokia’s suit are, sit back and settle in for many long years of litigation. Apple is not a company that goes quietly and if they expect to get a dime out of Cupertino, Nokia had better be prepared to fight.
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