Apple is ushering in the festive season with a bunch of new lawsuits from Nokia, with the Finnish tech company suing the Cupertino firm over alleged patent infringement. This is not the first lawsuit Apple has received for patent infringement, not by a long shot. But it’s usually Apple who is on the suing end rather than the one being sued. Be that as it may, the lawsuits have been filed and it looks to be another headache for Apple.
Nokia has been convincing Apple for a long time now to pay licensing fees for its patented technologies being used in their devices. In 2011, Apple paid Nokia a one-time payment for a lawsuit that has dragged on since 2009. Now Nokia is coming back for more. “Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple’s products,” said Nokia through official statements.
Apple has replied and accused the Finns of exploiting the patents they own. From Apple’s view, Nokia distributed its patents among patent assertion entities (PAEs) to avoid directly licensing them. The patents Nokia holds are considered standard-essential – the Finnish tech company is then required to license them under “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) terms. Apple accuses the PAEs working for Nokia of exploitation, calling them “mercenary PAEs” who work extract above-FRAND royalties from companies using the technologies – and Apple is one of those.
There are 32 patents involved in the lawsuits brought by Nokia to Apple, and they include technologies such as display elements, user interface, software and video coding, and both antenna and chipset details. We can only wait and see how long this lawsuit will play out.
