In response to a lawsuit filed in the US in 2009, consumer electronics giant Apple is suing Nokia for copyright infringement in relation to up to nine smartphone technology patents.
Nokia originally sued Apple for patent infringement back in October 2009 in the US, claiming that both the iPad and the iPhone infringed on ten of its patents including those relating to speech coding, encryption and security, and wireless data. It was claimed that around 40 companies had been signed up to legally use Nokia’s patents at the time, but Apple was not one of them.
The latest development sees Apple fighting back in British courts, counter-suing Nokia for infringement on nine, as yet unknown patents. Apple hasn’t commented on the lawsuit, but a Nokia spokesperson has said:
“This is an unsurprising development, which seems designed to put pressure on the ongoing dialogue between both companies. It changes nothing in the fundamentals of the matter, which are rooted in Apple’s refusal to respect Nokia’s intellectual property,”
Being such large, multi-national companies, it is expected that both Apple and Nokia will have near unlimited professional indemnity insurance policies. This will enable them to battle the lawsuit out for as long as is necessary, which could be some time as extremely valuable technology is at the heart of the dispute.