Did Nokia Sue Apple Before Apple Could Sue Nokia?
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 23, 2009 at 10:25 AM PT
Analysts mulling over Nokia’s IP infringment suit against Apple seem to be of two minds about how the action will play out. There are those, like Neil Mawston at Strategy Analytics and Ben Wood at CCS Insight, who warn that Apple (AAPL) is on dangerous ground here at best. It’s almost impossible to build a cellphone without using Nokia’s (NOK) intellectual property, they claim. And if that’s the case with the iPhone, then Apple could end up paying Nokia hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing fees if Cupertino ends up on the losing side of this suit. (Click on text image below to see list of patents at issue.)
Some analysts, like Maynard Um of UBS, see Nokia’s action as a preemptory move against a possible infringement suit from Apple aimed at Nokia’s own multitouch handsets.
“We believe Nokia’s suit could be a pre-emptive move ahead of its new handsets launching soon that may have multi-touch capabilities for which Apple has IP,” Um wrote in a note to clients this morning. “We would not be surprised if Apple eventually files an infringement suit if Nokia’s handsets are deemed to infringe its IP and we believe Nokia would prefer any court action to be combined as prior cases have been. We expect the legal process to be drawn out & could involve US Patent Office reviews.”
The endgame here? Most likely an out-of-court settlement and cross-licensing agreements–assuming Apple’s willing. After all, Nokia is on record admitting its fondness for Apple’s technology.
Asked once about the striking similarities between a touchscreen device it was designing and Apple’s iconic handset, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s head of multimedia devices replied, “If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.”
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Comments
It’s one thing to observe that those who don’t know history are destined to re-live it when your are talking about something that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago.
But aren’t we re-living the 80s and 90s here? I suppose the billions to be made for short-term “ownership” of that cell phone market makes it all worth it even if it is destined to come to an end eventually.
I hope that Google and others short circuit this trip down memory lane by providing software that is divorced from a particular vendors hardware (as well as particular carriers).
Some of us old technology buffs don’t have forever to watch these soap operas play out all over again.
Posted by Mac Beach at October 23rd, 2009 at 12:10 pmYou hit the nail on the head. Apple has built a mobile computing patent portfolio up the wazoo, so aggressively in fact, that when they started doing so I openly wondered whether this was a defensive move (i.e., get out of jail free when they step on others IP and prevent competition from patenting first), or an offensive move (build a standard, then build a toll road around it).
Here’s a link to the original post, if interested:
Upward Mobility, Land Grabs and the iPhone Universe
http://bit.ly/2A8sSG
Mark
Posted by Mark Sigal at October 23rd, 2009 at 8:23 pm