RSSNokia sues Apple, claims iPhone is stealing its innovations
By Tim Conneally | Published October 22, 2009, 11:31 AM
This is no patent troll lawsuit. This is the world's largest mobile phone maker calling out one of the most beloved devices of recent history on ten counts of patent infringement.
The patents that Nokia cited in its complaint to the Delaware District Court today are related to wireless standard compatibility, speech coding and wireless data, as well as security and encryption. Nokia says it has licensed these patents out to more than 40 other companies and that every model of iPhone since the device's introduction in 2007 has infringed on them.
"The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for. Apple is also expected to follow this principle," Nokia's Ilkka Rahnasto, Vice President, Legal & Intellectual Property, said in a prepared statement today. "By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia's intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of [our] innovation."
The Patents Nokia cites in the complaint are the following:
1.) "Data Transmission in a Radio Telephone Network." (1998) Covers the formation of virtual data channel.
2.) "Data Transfer in a Mobile Telephone Network." (2002) A wireless patent which covers when a radio block is to be coded, and user data is transferred in octet form to simplify flow of data.
3.) "Measurement Report Transmission in a Telecommunications System." (2004) This lets mobile devices respond to polling codes that indicate the condition of that device.
4.) "Access Channel for Reduced Access Delay in a Telecommunications System." (2004) A UMTS patent where access requests are adjusted based on channel conditions.
5.)"Reporting Cell Measurement Results in a Cellular Communications System." (2006) This "enables a mobile device to report an increased number of signal quality measurements to a mobile network."
6.) "Method and Apparatus for Speech Transmission." (1998) This lets multiple speech coding methods to be used at different transmission rates for 2 stage channel encoding.
7.) "Speech Synthesizer Employing Post-Processing for Enhancing the Quality of the Synthesized Speech." (1999) This is a postfilter processing technology for clearer voice calls.
8.) "Method of Ciphering Data Transmission in a Radio System." (2005) This covers a UMTS cyphering alogrithm with a channel specific parameter among its inputs.
9.) "Integrity Check in a Communications System." (2006) A UMTS integrity algorithm calculated from values including channel identity information.
10.) "System for Ensuring Encrypted Communication after Handover." (2008) This allows for secure handoffs with an encryption algorithms supported by a mobile station between radio access networks.
Nokia's complaint is a heavy affair, including nearly a dozen pieces of evidence with myriad schematics and graphs illustrating the ways Apple uses Nokia's patents.
In sum, however, it's a claim that is very simply stated: Apple Violates all of these patents because the iPhone:
1.) Is a wireless communication device,
2.) Includes encoders/decoders for bi-directional voice and data communication.
Nokia says Apple has heretofore failed to pay licensing fees for these patents under The European Telecommunications Standards Institute's Intellectual Property Policy (ETSI IPR Policy), and that the nearly three years of infringement must be paid for.
"Prior to filing this Complaint, Nokia has made various offers to Apple for the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty determination (F/RAND) terms and conditions of a license agreement...Apple has rejected Nokia's offers for the F/RAND terms and conditions both on a portfolio and on a per-patent basis, and thereby refused to compensate Nokia on F/RND terms for its use of Nokia's patented technologies, including each of the patents-in-suit."
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No- it's around for a while. But since it's used more by consumers than business users, I think opening it up will allow for some interesting consumer level products. In the enterprise, it's all about eliminating .pst files because of all of the technical and legal hurdles they present.
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|You eff'n people and your iPhones...you have no idea what it takes to run a cell phone...you WEEP for my little Blackberry and you curse it's existence...but deep down in places you don't talk about in your Apple store you WANT that Blackberry on the market you NEED that Blackberry on the market...we use things like non-touch screens, actual buttons, and bad internal cameras...you USE my Blackberry as a PUNCHLINE!
I have neither the time or patience for people who call and play on the very phone that mocks my phones existence and then CRIES when their phone doesn't do what they want...I'd rather you just say, "thank you Apple" and be on your way! BUT EITHER WAY I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT YOU THINK OF MY BLACKBERRY!!
Score: -1
|Punchline or punching bag?
In any case, if you don't give a damn, why are you ranting/crying about it here?
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|haha....thank you bousozoku
my thoughts exactly
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|lol, this is funny. Analysts expect that crapple will have to pay about $1 billion to Nokia for stealing (which is nothing new for crapple) their innovation
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|Good ole USA. Sueing for the sake of sueing. Judges should really crack down on who can sue for what.
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|I have to say - wow! If this story is proven to be true, God help Apple.
The quotes "Nokia says it has licensed these patents out to more than 40 other companies and that every model of iPhone since the device's introduction in 2007 has infringed on them."
and
"Prior to filing this Complaint, Nokia has made various offers to Apple for the fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty determination (F/RAND) terms and conditions of a license agreement...Apple has rejected Nokia's offers for the F/RAND terms and conditions both on a portfolio and on a per-patent basis, and thereby refused to compensate Nokia on F/RND terms for its use of Nokia's patented technologies, including each of the patents-in-suit."
on face value appear to be very damming.
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|I'd be surprised that Apple aren't already paying Qualcomm since Nokia was sued by Qualcomm only about two years ago for violating telecommunication patents. They seemed rather indignant when Qualcomm sued them but now that the foot in the other mouth...
What I've seen later today, and prior to this, is that Nokia is expecting quite a bit in compensation.
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|It's funny actually,
Data Transmission in a Radio Telephone Network.
Measurement Report Transmission in a Telecommunications System.
Method of Ciphering Data Transmission in a Radio System.
System for Ensuring Encrypted Communication after Handover
All the above have been in use by the military in their communication systems long before Nokia was selling products in the United States....wonder if the govt should sue Nokia, LOL
Of course this lawsuit won't go anywhere because it wasn't filed in the Eastern District Of Texas...LMAO
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|The government can't hold copyrights or patents. The privately-held companies designing equipment for the government can, but the government itself cannot.
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|@johnus
It's called ATT Labs my friend and has been around a long time
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|Apple has been in the tech business for a lot longer than Nokia and has a whole stable of patents. I'm sure there will be counter-suits and this will drag on for years.
While I don't support theft of intellectual property, this seems like another example of the counter-productiveness of our current system. Big companies patent every basic little solution they come up with, then either use it to shut out new entrants or to go after competitors when they've clearly lost hope of competing in the market.
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|Exactly....to play in this game you have to have a lot of patents...it is an arms race. Apple probably told them to f off as Nokia violates some of Apple's patents. this will be interesting to follow....
Nokia is a failing company whose marketshare is in free fall. When all else fails, bring in the lawyers.
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|Nokia Founded in Tampere, Finland (1865, Incorporated in Nokia (1871)
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|Apple founded in founded on Dec 25th around 4 B.C. in Bethlehem!!
So be very careful before making them mad!!
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|"Apple has been in the tech business for a lot longer than Nokia..."
Really? So which Apple innovation do you feel predates Nokias first digital switch for telephone exchanges from 1970? Or their pulse analyzer from 1962?
I don't know whether the patent claims are valid or not, but Nokia has been producing military and commercial radio and phone systems since the 60's, the worlds first call over a commercial GSM network was made with a Nokia phone, etc. I'm no Nokia fan, but I know my bit of telecoms history, and so far Apple's just a footnote in the last couple of years of it.
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|This is cool, I hope Nokia will squeeze billions out of this fraudapple company
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|Nokia is going to gab the apple tree and see what bounty it can get. It think it stands a good chance of pulling this off, and apple shows us its just as bad as its often acused rivals in coughing up patents. I dont think buying the company is an option ...
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|Violating a patent? Yeah, there's an app for that!
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|"By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia's intellectual property"
Sounds like there's been some disagreements thus far. Considering this is pretty recent, as in not 10 years down the road as the GIF patent was. This will probably stand up in the courts.
Just as Palm Pre was not allowed to ride iTunes coat tails for free, so should this phone not be riding Nokia's tail for free.
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|"Just as Palm Pre was not allowed to ride iTunes coat tails for free, so should this phone not be riding Nokia's tail for free."
???
Anyone can use the dev tools for iTunes to get their device to interact properly with iTunes....and those tools are free. Pre just tried to do it the "easy" way.
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|I stand corrected. Just looked this up. All I can say is Palm ... WTF!?!! Based on the fiasco with the Pre I had some assumptions that were incorrect.
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|Hehe...
Palm was trying to get by without doing the legwork.
*shrug*
It didn't break anything and it worked. Apple is the problem in this scenario, though how Palm thought for a moment Apple would let it slide is beyond me. They just didn't think it though...
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