Nokia Corp said on Wednesday it had filed a number of lawsuits against Apple Inc for violating 32 technology patents, striking back at the iPhone maker's legal action targeting the one-time cellphone industry leader a day earlier.
Nokia announced today it is suing Apple in German and US courts for patent infringement, claiming the Cupertino-based tech giant was using Nokia technology in “many” products without paying for it. Nokia, once the world’s top mobile phone maker, said the two companies had signed a licensing agreement in 2011, and since then “Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple’s 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,” Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Nokia’s patent business, said in a statement.
Nokia's lawsuits, filed in courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich, Germany, and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, cover patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.
Nokia was the world’s leading mobile phone maker from 1998 until 2011 when it bet on Microsoft’s Windows mobile platform, which proved to be a flop. Analysts say the company failed to grasp the growing importance of smartphone apps compared to hardware. It sold its unprofitable handset unit in 2014 for some $7.2 billion to Microsoft, which dropped the Nokia name from its Lumia smartphone handsets.
Apple on Tuesday had taken legal action against Acacia Research Corp and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc, accusing them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly from Apple.
"We've always been willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights of patents covering technology in our products," said Apple spokesman Josh Rosenstock. "Unfortunately, Nokia has refused to license their patents on a fair basis and is now using the tactics of a patent troll to attempt to extort money from Apple by applying a royalty rate to Apple's own inventions they had nothing to do with."
The 2011 licensing deal followed years of clashes with Apple, which has also sparred with main rival Samsung over patent claims. At the time, Apple cut the deal to settle 46 separate complaints Nokia had lodged against it for violation of intellectual property.
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