Nokia wages legal war against HTC, RIM and ViewSonic on two continents
Nokia is undergoing tough times as it loses its Symbian followers and burns cash quickly, but it’s not only a defense game that Nokia has to play. The Finns have launched a Windows Phone offense, and while this was off to a not so impressive start, Nokia has decided to sue HTC, RIM and ViewSonic for patent infringement in the US and Germany.
Nokia has waged legal war on the three companies with 11 separate lawsuits concerning 45 pattents in virtually all spheres you can think of starting with antennas and power management, and going into software and application stores.
Nokia has filed a complaint against HTC at the US International Trade Commission (ITC), and a number of lawsuits in Delaware, Dusseldorf, Manheim and Munich, Germany.
"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," Nokia explained in a statement.
Previously, Nokia won a huge intellectual property case against Apple and estimates showed that the Finns got over $600 million in settlement money. Data shows that Nokia is still the biggest patent holder in the mobile industry, but it hasn't been the loudest one in court. This latest series of lawsuits could change that.
source: Nokia
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."
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