Nokia Suit Escalates Apple Patent Infringement Row; What You Should Know

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In a recent report the world came to know about a long legal battle between two tech giants, Nokia Oyj and Apple Inc. Nokia has sued Apple.Inc over infringement of a number of mobile patents. The situation took an ugly turn when the battle was taken up to a legal fight on several fronts.

The Finland based mobile company, Nokia accused Apple of serious patent infringement. Earlier both the tech giants had settled a lawsuit that goes back to 2011. But it seems that nothing was permanently settled as both these companies are once again at loggerheads with each other.

Only this time, Apple has filed a lawsuit, not against Nokia, but againts a third party companies called as patent assertion entities or PAEs. Interestingly, in regard to this lawsuit, Nokia is directly suing Apple.

According to an earlier lawsuit filed by Apple, it has mentioned that Nokia has agreement over the license of patents. But, instead of using it on their own, Nokia is transferring the patents to third party companies or PAEs to make more money. Apple also went to state that this shouldn't be allowed since its abusive as well as anticompetitive to other companies as well as to Apple.

Now, Nokia isn't far behind in the lawsuit war and is suing Apple since they believe Apple owes them money for the patents they use in the Apple devices. These two companies were last seen fighting a legal spat in 2009 when Nokia sued Apple over  infringement of patent of some important parts. However, both the tech giants had reached to an ageement whereby where Apple had to pay a one time sum to Nokia. Also, Apple had to agree to pay regular royalties henceforth.

As per the latest lawsuit, Apple claims, the companies which include Conversant Property Management and Acacia Research, both, "conspiring with Nokia in a scheme to diffuse and abuse [standard essential patents] and, as the PAEs and Nokia fully intended, monetize those false promises by extracting exorbitant non-FRAND royalties in way Nokia could not."

Nokia's lawsuit is just in retaliation to Apple's lawsuit, but Apple since facing two opponents, PAEs and Nokia has been trying hard to hold onto the patent. This lawsuit might prove to be beneficial for Apple, but that's again if Apple wins and doesn't settle midway.