The new suit is in addition to a an iPhone-related patent infringement lawsuit Nokia filed against Apple in October, where Nokia alleges that Apple violates 10 of its wireless technology-related patents in manufacturing the iPhone. Apple fired back with a countersuit in December with its own patent infringement claims.
Nokia responded to Apple’s response with a complaint to the ITC that other Apple products violate Nokia patents, including iPods, MacBooks, and iMacs. The new lawsuit includes the same complaints, but in the legal arena.
The lawsuits are all part of the battle between the two companies on who gets to use which patented technology, and how much they will have to pay to do it. Nokia was once the dominant smartphone maker, and is still the largest handset maker on the planet.
In recent years, however, the company’s Symbian OS has been overshadowed by BlackBerry and iPhone OS, as well as Google’s Android, and the patent suits are seen as a strategy of getting access to several of Apple patents that would make it easier for Nokia to develop a smartphone that can compete with the iPhone.
Failing that, however, a successful claim against Apple in the courts or in the international trade agreement realm (as represented by the ITC) would at least net Nokia substantial money, possibly billions of dollars (US). Apple, a company that almost never comments about ongoing litigation, served notice that it takes this fight seriously by announcing the above-mentioned countersuit via press release.