Nokia sues Apple, Apple:"Nokia is conspiring with patent trolls to sue us"

suicidalfranco · December 24, 2016

Today in LTT Apple Hate News Network, Nokia sues Apple in 11 countries (in Asia, Europe, United States) for 40 patent infringement.

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In addition to the U.S. (Eastern District of Texas, with a total of 18 patents in play, including H.264 video codec patents) and Germany (eight patents in Düsseldorf, four in Mannheim, and two in Munich, where the first hearings in this new dispute will likely take place in March or April), Nokia is now also asserting three patents in Helsinki, Finland; three patents in London; four in Turin, Italy; three in Stockholm, Sweden; one in Barcelona, Spain; three in The Hague, Netherlands; one in Paris, France;one in Hong Kong, China; and one in Tokyo, Japan.

This lawsuit is a result of disagreement in licensing fees between the two tech giants. Nokia claims that Apple has refused to establish a licensing deal to use Nokia techs in their products:

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Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia, said: "Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights.

On the other side, Apple says that Nokia failing mobile business as pushed them to transfer their patents to patent assertion entities (patent trolls) to get out of FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, Non-Discriminatory) licensing deals in order to collect higher royalty on essential patents:

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With its cell phone business dying, Nokia began to seek out willing conspirators and to commence its illegal patent transfer scheme in full force; that scheme has continued in full effect to the present. The driving force behind Nokia's strategy was to diffuse its patent portfolio and place it in the hands of PAEs. Acacia and Conversant were its chief conspirators.

So Apple as decided to counter this lawsuit by suing Nokia on antitrust grounds in the US but if Apple should win that case it could push the European Commission to investigate Nokia without needing Apple to present a formal request.

source: http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/12/22/apple-nokia-is-conspiring-with-patent-trolls-to-sue-us/ http://www.technobuffalo.com/2016/12/22/nokia-is-suing-apple-for-infringing-on-32-patents/