Nokia victorious in patent battle with Apple

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 14 June 2011 18:04

IT Industry - Strategy

Nokia has emerged victorious from a two year tit-for-tat intellectual property stoush against Apple, with Apple agreeing to a one-time payment to Nokia and ongoing royalties.

Nokia said: "The agreement will result in settlement of all patent litigation between the companies, including the withdrawal by Nokia and Apple of their respective complaints to the US International Trade Commission."

"We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees," said Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Nokia. "This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market."

The stoush started in October 2009 with Nokia filing a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware alleging that Apple's iPhone infringed 10 Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN standards. Apple retaliated with a patent suit claiming that Nokia was infringing 13 Apple patents. Nokia then filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (USITC) alleging that seven Nokia patents were being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the areas of user interface, camera, antenna and power management technologies.

Nokia then filed more patent claims against Apple over patents used in the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in the UK High Court, Dusseldorf and Mannheim District Courts in Germany and the District Court of the Hague, taking the total number of Nokia patents that the company alleged Apple had infringed to 37.

Intellectual property blogger, Florian Mueller - who had predicted the outcome - described the stoush as "the most bitterly contest patent dispute that this industry has seen to date."

According to Mueller "This frees up resources for both Apple and Nokia. Apple is embroiled in litigation with the three leading Android device makers (Motorola, HTC and Samsung). Nokia doesn't have any litigation worries, but part of its new strategy is to ratchet up monetisation of its patent portfolio.

"Having proven its ability to defeat Apple'¦Other companies whom Nokia will ask to pay royalties will have to think very hard whether to pay or pick a fight."

He added: "This is also very significant with a view to Android. Given that Android is in many ways a rip-off of Apple's operating software, Android-based devices are highly likely to infringe on largely the same Nokia patents that Apple now felt forced to pay for."

For anyone seriously interested in this battle Mueller has produced a 'battlemap': 42 pages of diagrams and text showing, in extraordinary detail, every stage in the dispute between Nokia and Apple, up to the end of March.