Nokia sues Apple in Delaware District Court for infringement of Nokia GSM, UMTS and WLAN patents
by Volker Weber
Espoo, Finland - Nokia announced that it has today filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) standards.
Comments
Seems like patents are only used as tactical weapons these days.
"Nokia has already successfully entered into license agreements including these patents with approximately 40 companies, including virtually all the leading mobile device vendors, allowing the industry to benefit from Nokia's innovation."
This is just so nice of them.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Obviously we are in the "then they fight you" phase now ...
Wish Nokia would realise that they need to raise their own game to beat Apple, RIM and Google rather than just falling back on patent lawsuits. Fact is, they're not innovating, others are, and consumers are well aware of that...
I like Maemo. And it's very innovative.
Side note: Nokia's market cap is around USD 50bn. Apple has around USD 25bn of cash or short term securities. How about some foot-dragging exercise, Apple?!
Apple's patents and how they use them aren't exactly better. Here's one patent application that people claim to be the reason why Maemo is using a circular zoom gesture instead of the easier gesture used by the iPhone, though I don't know if this is a rumour or fact.
Anyway, the patent system as a whole is a mess.
Linux on a phone is for me one of the biggest reasons to buy that phone. However, that lack of multitouch makes me to wait for N901, which has also Maemo 6. Linux will literally explode the number of available apps on a phone, and it will also introduce free apps for phones, and enable everyone to develop new apps.
Seems to me like someone wants a little cross-licensing agreement.
Why should Nokia not try to save their rights? Just because Apple is more innovative at the moment?
Comparing Apple with Mahatma Gandhi is weird. Apple is also just a company with the same targets then any other company.
Try to use a patent of Apple without paying for it, you will see, they also have lawyers.
A good amount of documented, excellent discussion on the pros and cons of the idea of a patent system can be found if one reads about Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the U.S. Prior to his presidency, he was Secretary of State and in this position part of the Board of Arts, the body that reviewed patent applications and granted patents. See here for an example of a documentation.
As it is currently operated, the patent systems really fails to serve its purpose. But then, the companies can't be blamed for the failure of the patent system. If you want to play the game, you have to play by the rules.
The Gandhi comment could be used in reverse as well.
First Apple ignored the patents, then they laughed at Nokia, then Nokia took them to court, then Nokia won.
And if news articles are to be believed, the multi-touch was disabled from android due to 'patent litigation' threat by Apple. What makes this action any different?
This morning I was joking with my colleague about this. I said that GSM and WLAN are a lot more worth than multi-touch. We didn't come to a conclusion as to what else Nokia should get from Apple. What do you think?
Without Nokia developed innovations Iphone would be nothing but an Ipod
