Nokia sues Apple for patent infringement
Ready for copy
SAN FRANCISCO — Nokia said on Wednesday it is suing Apple for patent infringement, a day after the Silicon Valley company iPhone maker sued two patent licensors and accused the Finish communications giant of colluding with them.
In lawsuits filed in courts in Germany and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Nokia claims Apple violated 32 technology patents that cover displays, software, user interfaces, chip sets, video coding, antennas and other functions.
"Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products," read a statement from Nokia, which sold its handset business to Microsoft in 2014 in a $7.2 billion deal seen as a costly mistake for Microsoft.
On Tuesday, Apple filed suit against Acacia Research and Conversant Intellectual Property Management, both of whom license patents, for allegedly engaging in anticompetitive behavior with Nokia to “extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly” from Apple and other smartphone makers.
Apple's suit, filed in federal court in California, claims the companies "conspired with Nokia to use unfair and anticompetitive patent assertions to improperly tax the innovations of cell phone makers."
The suits indicate expensive and lengthy legal battles over smartphone patents haven't been put to rest by the Supreme Court's ruling in a five-year legal battle between the two dominant smartphone makers — Apple and Samsung — over design features. In that closely watched case, the first design patent case to reach the high court in more than a century, the justices ruled in favor of a lower penalty for Samsung — a decision seen as easing the risk for other manufacturers who mimic products.
Samsung wins Supreme Court fight with Apple
In a statement to USA TODAY Wednesday, Apple said: "Unfortunately, Nokia has refused to license their patents on a fair basis and is now using the tactics of a patent troll to attempt to extort money from Apple by applying a royalty rate to Apple’s own inventions they had nothing to do with."
"We are standing up for inventors everywhere by fighting this flagrant anticompetitive practice,” Apple said.
Shares of Apple closed slightly higher at $117.06. Nokia's U.S.-listed shares fell 2.9% to $4.76.
Follow USA TODAY San Francisco Bureau Chief Jon Swartz @jswartz on Twitter.