Nokia, one of world’s leading cell phone manufacturers has filed a patent infringement suit against Apple earlier on May 07th 2010, in the Federal District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin alleging that Apple’s iPhone and the Apple iPad 3G infringe on five patents that cover a broad range of technologies. However, this is not the first time that Nokia and Apple have been engaged in this “Patent Lawsuit Battle”.

The latest lawsuit is about technologies associated with enhanced speech and data transmission. In a statement, Nokia described this technology as “positioning data in applications and innovations in antenna configurations that improve performance and save space, allowing smaller and more compact devices.” Apple is continuing to seek a free ride on the back of Nokia patents,” said a Nokia spokesman.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling refused to share his views on the new case but said the company had already filed a countersuit in December to earlier claims by Nokia. Apple claims Nokia is infringing on 13 of its patents, saying the company chose to “copy the iPhone” in order to recapture its share of the high-end phone market.

It has to be noted that earlier, Apple has sued Nokia and HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone maker, which is also gaining market share. Apple-branded wireless communication devices make use of Nokia’s decades’ efforts and investments (around $60 billion (40 billion euros) on R&D related to wireless technology) undertaken for advancing cellular communications. The patent gives the Nokia handsets a leading edge against its smartphone market rivals.

The relationship between these two giants is not giving any signs of improving soon. Critics claim that at the end of the day, it is possible that the two tech giants would agree to cross licenses for some of their patents as they are “probably ‘borrowing’ each other’s technology to some extent.” Apple is slowly but surely emerging as one of leading manufacturers of smartphone segment although it entered the cellphone industry only three years ago. Nokia, on the other hand, is currently ruling at the number one position and might be facing some strong competition by Apple in the coming years.


Written by: systemic, who runs a website about ic