[Foreverup]

http://http://www.engadget.com/2012/...atent-lawsuit/

Nokia takes new steps to protect its innovations and intellectual property

Espoo, Finland - Nokia has filed claims in the United States and Germany alleging that products from HTC, RIM and Viewsonic infringe a number of Nokia patents.

"Nokia is a leader in many technologies needed for great mobile products," said Louise Pentland, chief legal officer at Nokia. "We have already licensed our standards essential patents to more than 40 companies. Though we'd prefer to avoid litigation, Nokia had to file these actions to end the unauthorized use of our proprietary innovations and technologies, which have not been widely licensed."

Nokia's actions include a complaint to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) against HTC, suits against HTC and Viewsonic in the Federal District Court of Delaware, US, against HTC and RIM in the Regional Court in Dusseldorf, Germany and against all three companies in the Regional Courts in Mannheim and Munich, Germany. In total, 45 Nokia patents are in suit in one or more of the actions.

Nokia proprietary innovations protected by these patents are being used by the companies to enable hardware capabilities such as dual function antennas, power management and multimode radios, as well as to enhance software features including application stores, multitasking, navigation, conversational message display, dynamic menus, data encryption and retrieval of email attachments on a mobile device.

"Many of these inventions are fundamental to Nokia products," Pentland concluded. "We'd rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations, but as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorized use of our inventions."

[sam_b77]

That's a lot of cases and a lot of money in legal fees. Wouldn't it be better if Nokia diverted those resources to R&D and marketing instead of pi$$ing it all away on lawyers?

[OniPod]

During these times, it is far easier to just sue than to invest in R&D. 2010 was the beginning of the decade of the patent wars.

Try googling who is suing who in the tech industry. Long articles, almost every company is named either as a complainant or defender....Wake me when it's over.

[Shlooky]

If RIM and HTC did in fact infringe on Nokia's patents then yes they will spend every cent to protect their investment.

[Foreverup]

That's a lot of cases and a lot of money in legal fees. Wouldn't it be better if Nokia diverted those resources to R&D and marketing instead of pi$$ing it all away on lawyers?

I don't know but those are some pretty fundamental aspects to smartphones Nokia lists in the press release. Anyone else think Microsoft is in some way behind this push all of sudden by nokia?

But people can't call Nokia a patent troll.

[hpjrt]

Um ... Nokia has filed claims in the US and Germany. RIM is headquartered in Canada. If this is valid, why haven't they filed a claim in Canada against RIM?

[morlock_man]

They're claiming a patent on multitasking. I doubt it'll fly.

[Foreverup]

Um ... Nokia has filed claims in the US and Germany. RIM is headquartered in Canada. If this is valid, why haven't they filed a claim in Canada against RIM?

i believe they can sue where ever the devices are sold or where the patents held, but I'm not a patent lawyer. With all these tech cases I am getting a good crash course in it though.

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[Italianemperor]

The way things are going I do not think it will be possible to launch any mobile technology without infringing on a patent. I am certain Nokia is probably infringing on a RIM owned patent if we looked hard enough.

[Premium1]

Um ... Nokia has filed claims in the US and Germany. RIM is headquartered in Canada. If this is valid, why haven't they filed a claim in Canada against RIM?

Because they are probably looking to stop the sale of those devices and would assume the US and Germany are two big markets?

[sam_b77]

Because they are probably looking to stop the sale of those devices and would assume the US and Germany are two big markets?

Or probably since Nokia is an European company they must have thought that they would get a better deal in European courts. Then if they won there, they would use those precedents in Canada.

[palomartian]

Oh no! If they prevail in the US RIM could lose hundreds of sales!

[morlock_man]

They've realized what RIM's holding and want a piece of the upcoming action.

[DenverRalphy]

Um ... Nokia has filed claims in the US and Germany. RIM is headquartered in Canada. If this is valid, why haven't they filed a claim in Canada against RIM?

Because the patents are filed with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) and EPO (European Patent Office).

[sinsin07]

Damn, 14 posts already and not a single "Apple is behind this". Amazing.

[Economist101]

Damn, 14 posts already and not a single "Apple is behind this". Amazing.

Apple is behind this.

[lnichols]

Nokia is just pissed that they went from a burning platform in Symbian that had huge marketshare before to a smoldering platform in WP that has never had any marketshare. Next step sue to try to stay afloat sin they had a loss of about $1.5 Billion last quarter.

[sinsin07]

Apple is behind this.

Thanks. Now it's an official Crackberry thread. I was worried that rational thinking was seeping in.

[FSeverino]

That's a lot of cases and a lot of money in legal fees. Wouldn't it be better if Nokia diverted those resources to R&D and marketing instead of pi$$ing it all away on lawyers?

I made three LONG posts about this exact thing yesterday night (early this morning)

I dont understand how CONSUMER companies throw away all this money and then expect the consumers to just lap up every product they release when they know that hundreds of millions of possible advancements has not been made due to greed.

[mithrazor]

That's a lot of cases and a lot of money in legal fees. Wouldn't it be better if Nokia diverted those resources to R&D and marketing instead of pi$$ing it all away on lawyers?

Not necessarily. Because if these cases are legitimate. They'll either get a settlement. Or they'll get royalties.

Either will get them money.

[sinsin07]

I made three LONG posts about this exact thing yesterday night (early this morning)

Why?

I dont understand how CONSUMER companies throw away all this money and then expect the consumers to just lap up every product they release when they know that hundreds of millions of possible advancements has not been made due to greed.

Are you expecting consumers walking into a B&M or shopping online to first check how many stifling patent suits a company has before buying their product?

Concerning the item in bold, do you know that hundreds of millions of possible advancements have been blocked, or is that just an example over exuberance on the subject?

[hpjrt]

Didn't Nokia sue Apple over the same things just recently? Any resolution to those cases yet?

[Economist101]

Didn't Nokia sue Apple over the same things just recently? Any resolution to those cases yet?

CNET Mobile - News

[kraski]

If RIM and HTC did in fact infringe on Nokia's patents then yes they will spend every cent to protect their investment.

Look at past history with patent suits. Even if the defendant is right, it's often cheaper and easier to settle than fight it all the way through the courts. So it becomes an easy way for some of those suing to get some quick income at the expense of whoever they're suing. Even if the claim has no validity.

[Zidentia]

This has little chance of succeeding due to the widespread use of these technologies

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