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This is so true. If Apple wins with their 13 then Nokia will have to redesign some phones, if Nokia wins with all of their patents Apple will have to stop making phones altogether.

The fanboys will probably try to tell us all how smartphones didnt even exist until apple created the iphone.

A nice fantasy but unfortunately Apple is entitled to the same terms Research in Motion and Motorola are given. Nokia can't put them out of business. At best they could collect a few dollars. But apparently so can Apple. The question is whose infringement is the greater one? Who will end up paying more, and will it cover all the legal fees.
 
Nokia: Darn, Apple is leaving us in the dust with these smartphones. We need to copy it as soon as possible, but if we do Apple's lawyers will be all over us like black on kettle. Wait a minute, if we can get Apple to license their iPhone patents to us, for free, then it's no problem. OK. Let's see if we can squeeze them with a few additions to the licensing terms of our tech, and if not, well, we can always sue.

Interesting story but not true as Apple's countersuit shows. There's 13 patents mentioned and only ONE is an iPhone 'innovation'....

No. 7,469,381, B2: List scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display

...which relates to flicking pages and scaling images. All the others having nothing to do with the iPhone and predate it in many cases.

If Nokia really had copied the iPhone, you'd think Apple would be suing them for the patents it holds on the iPhone. The problem is, Apple holds very few patents on the iPhone itself, despite what Steve Jobs said when he launched it. Many of the software patents here are from Taligent - Apple and IBMs failed object-oriented OS experiment from the 90s.

What next? Nokia claiming patents it had from Psion back in the 80s are infringed by Apple?
 
In all honesty, Nokia has had full on touch smart phones way before iPhone (the predecessors of their n900 and some others). Apparently they were only available in Europe and some only in Scandinavia.

If you really want to go back a bit further, Symbian has a lineage going back to Psion's EPOC which predates the Newton.

But as I said, this isn't about touch screen interfaces. All but 1 of Apple's claims are nothing to do with the iPhone.
 
Offtopic:

I was reading NOKIA's Wikipidea page and found out that NOKIA was founded 1865 :eek: it took apple less then 2 years to beat them in smartphone market..

you must be american. in europe and asia nokia is the clear number 1 manufacturer.

just because the iphone gets a lot of media attention doesn't mean that apple is a massive player in the mobile phone market.

apple produces one phone with 3 derivatives. that's a pretty limited handset lineup and quite frankly the contract lifetime costs of an iphone are sickening, which places them in the top tier of the mobile phone market pricewise.

nokia makes most of its money from non smartphones which is the vast majority of the market.

with regards to patent infringements. nokia has indeed created a lot of very important patents regarding GSM technology, which apple needs to licence, but don't see fit to pay for (everybody else does).

and before i get thread-raped, i buy whatever tech fits my needs regardless of the manufacturer.
 
The problem is that Nokia may be compelled to license their patents as a result of them being a part of the GSM standard. Apple, on the other hand, is under no such obligation.

A very likely outcome of this mess is that Apple pays a fair license fee to Nokia (F/RAND, their chief complaint from the start) and Nokia is given a cease and desist order on marketing their infringing devices. A second likely outcome would be for Apple to pay a fair license fee to Nokia and Nokia to pay a massive sum of money for a limited license to key Apple patents.

Highly unlikely: that Nokia and Apple both just turn around and walk away, Nokia unable to sell OO and touchscreen devices and Apple unable to use GSM.

IMHO, looking at the two suits, unless there's not much to Apples patent claims (and giving the same benefit of doubt to Nokia's patent claims), Apple should end up significantly "ahead" in any deal which is to be made here. They simply have a more compelling case for voluntary infringement.

Some objectivity wouldn't hurt... Yep, I like my iPhone and I wouldn't change it to Nokia but the fact remains; Nokia came up with touch screen smart phones way before Apple did. Nokia has had MP3 playing music phones even before era of smart phones. It is highly unlikely Apple wants to test their patents against Nokia in the court. This looks more like a typical counter law suit which Apple hopes is going to give them better positions for negotiations. The fact is Nokia's patents are key IP in creating GSM smart phones. Experts say one can't be created without using them. On the other hand Apple's patents aren't key IP and therefore their financial impact isn't as significant as Nokia's.
 
The problem is that Nokia may be compelled to license their patents as a result of them being a part of the GSM standard. Apple, on the other hand, is under no such obligation.

A very likely outcome of this mess is that Apple pays a fair license fee to Nokia (F/RAND, their chief complaint from the start) and Nokia is given a cease and desist order on marketing their infringing devices. A second likely outcome would be for Apple to pay a fair license fee to Nokia and Nokia to pay a massive sum of money for a limited license to key Apple patents.

Highly unlikely: that Nokia and Apple both just turn around and walk away, Nokia unable to sell OO and touchscreen devices and Apple unable to use GSM.

IMHO, looking at the two suits, unless there's not much to Apples patent claims (and giving the same benefit of doubt to Nokia's patent claims), Apple should end up significantly "ahead" in any deal which is to be made here. They simply have a more compelling case for voluntary infringement.

Well said. I went through the Apple document (79 pages) pretty quickly, but the gist was that Apple wanted F/RAND and that was all, but that if necessary, they would attempt to invalidate many of Nokia's claims. It also appeared that Nokia was attempting to leverage the F/RAND to obtain Apple UI tech, which they are specifically proscribed from as part of the Standards Setting Organization.
 
Highly unlikely: that Nokia and Apple both just turn around and walk away, Nokia unable to sell OO and touchscreen devices and Apple unable to use GSM.

I know this turnout is "highly unlikely" from your conclusion but why would Nokia be unable to sell touchscreen devices? They've been selling them since 2004 (Nokia 7710).
 
They own some of the essential patents relating to it. When the standard is being thrashed out, each company declares which of their patents is essential to the standard working. The trick is to get as many of your patents into the standard as possible because then everyone else has to license them from you.

RIM seem to think so anyway. They've just licensed it again...

http://www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/showpressrelease?newsid=1275090

And Qualcomm and InterDigital lost to Nokia over similar, if not the exact, essential to GSM and 3G patent infringements recently. Nokia own thousands of patents relating to GSM/UMTS, many of which are essential to the standard.

I would guess Apple's defence is that they already think they've licensed GSM and 3G patents from InterDigital to the tune of $20 million + royalties or that their off the shelf chipset suppliers have paid up already.

This will just end up with patent cross-licensing with Apple getting a license to Nokia's GSM/UMTS radio technology patents and Nokia getting access to Apple's patents should there be any of merit. Somehow I think Nokia will end up giving up more relevant patents than Apple will though. Apple's patents are usually lame crap like UI gestures rather than actual technology. Apple will look pretty stupid trying to swap finger swipes for UMTS but I guess if that's what stupid people pay money for and Apple has a patent on it, Nokia's only option is to capitulate.

If I recall correctly it was Nokia that lost the majority of patent disputes with Qualcomm in the USA and also in Europe. This kept Nokia from using ANY of Qualcomm's chipsets (along with Broadcom, and a few others) and forced Nokia to use cheap Freescale chipsets. This was all over the news for the past 3-5yrs.

Here is just one specific OOPS about the patents....

http://www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/archive/archiveshowpressrelease?newsid=1018639
Leading mobile wireless technology companies call on European Commission to investigate Qualcomm's anti-competitive conduct
October 28, 2005


Broadcom, Ericsson, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic Mobile Communications and Texas Instruments have each filed Complaints to the European Commission requesting that it investigate and stop Qualcomm's anti-competitive conduct in the licensing of essential patents for 3G mobile technology.

The companies state that Qualcomm is violating EU competition law and failing to meet the commitments Qualcomm made to international standard bodies around the world that it would license its technology on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Absent these commitments, the WCDMA 3G standard would not have been adopted. Qualcomm is infringing these rules by:

- trying to exclude competing manufacturers of chipsets for mobile phones from the market and preventing others from entering. To this end, Qualcomm has committed a number of abuses, ranging from the refusal to licence essential patents to potential chipset competitors on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms to offering lower royalty rates to handset customers who buy chipsets exclusively from Qualcomm.

- charging royalties for its WCDMA essential patents that are excessive and disproportionate; in particular by imposing the same royalty rate on WCDMA 3G handsets as it does for CDMA2000 3G handsets despite the fact that Qualcomm has contributed far less technology to the WCDMA 3G standard than it has to the CDMA2000 standard.

The companies believe that Qualcomm's anti-competitive behaviour has harmful effects for the mobile telecommunications sector in Europe, as well as elsewhere, because carriers and consumers are facing higher prices and fewer choices.

http://www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/showpressrelease?newsid=1260299
On July 24, 2008, Nokia and Qualcomm entered into a new agreement covering various current and future standards and other technologies, and resulting in a settlement of all litigation between the companies. Under the terms of the 15 year agreement, Nokia has been granted a license under all Qualcomm's patents for use in Nokia's mobile devices and Nokia Siemens Networks infrastructure equipment. As previously communicated, the financial terms also included a lump-sum cash payment. The payment amounts to EUR 1.7 billion and is payable by Nokia to Qualcomm during the fourth quarter 2008

Q3 2008 OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
Nokia
- Nokia and Qualcomm announced that they entered into a new agreement covering various standards, including GSM, EDGE, CDMA, WCDMA, HSDPA, OFDM, WiMAX, LTE and other technologies. The agreement resulted in settlement of all litigation between the two companies.

also ...
http://www.nokia.com/press/press-releases/showpressrelease?newsid=1305539
- Nokia announced that it selected Broadcom as a next generation 3G baseband, radio frequency (RF) and mixed signal chipset system supplier for worldwide markets. Nokia and Broadcom are cooperating on technology, including Nokia modem technology.
- Nokia and Qualcomm announced that they are planning to work together to develop advanced Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile devices, initially for the North American market.
 
So... my question is two fold:
1) Why is Apple having to deal with Nokia directly on their GSM patents, is there not a group setup handling the patents like other standard patent pools?

2) When licensing a standard, there is almost always a set fee that is non-negotiable setup by the pool process, and there is NO reciprocal licensing. Having a separate entity handling those licensing agreements in such a way prevents a company from trying to do what Nokia is doing, leverage their ownership of patents to force a company to give up rights to patents that aren't automatically theirs.

It appears Apple is trying to license on the same terms as everyone else, and is completely willing to and should be able to. Nokia is trying to force Apple to give away the farm so Nokia doesn't step on Apple's innovations; so they try to block Apple from making a GSM product using industry standard license for a fee practices to force Apple to hand over their touch patents.


The above is the most crucial bit about this report. Basically, if a company invents and patents technology which is essential to establishing a standard (such as GSM), then that company is obliged to offer it on F/RAND [Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory] terms.

Apple is saying that Nokia is going beyond the commitment it gave and wants to charge Apple more than it charges others who make use of the same technology. In addition, Nokia is also asking for "unjustifiable royalties and reciprocal licenses to Apple's patents covering Apple's pioneering technology".

So Apple is quite right to not only defend itself but also go on a counter-attack because Nokia has violated Apple's IP.

THANK YOU. Some people on here that ACTUALLY understand what they're talking about. Seems most of the trash talkers on this site don't seem to understand that bit right there. What you said is exactly right, and Apple absolutely must go on a counter-attack.

Nokia simply sees something that they like, which is the iPhone and Apples other products and their design, and is taking advantage of their standards to try and bully Apple into giving up its IP, which is not allowed and should not be tolerated. You just can't do that, and Apple has no choice but to go after Nokia for not only violating their IP, but for also violating the F/RAND terms. They cannot just single out Apple to settle to any different terms to license GSM technology, just because they see something better from Apple that they are envious of.

End of story. Anyone saying that Apple is the bully in this situation simply has no idea what they're talking about. Nokia is being the bully and taking advantage of something they're not allowed to.
 
End of story. Anyone saying that Apple is the bully in this situation simply has no idea what they're talking about. Nokia is being the bully and taking advantage of something they're not allowed to.

Sorry but that's nonsense. There is no 'bully' or 'victim' here. Once again, this is about negotiation.
 
Don't see why this is a big deal. This doesn't change my view from yesterday which is Nokia is headed down the toilet while Apple and RIM gobble up market share. This is something for lawyers to give half a damn about.
 
The above is the most crucial bit about this report. Basically, if a company invents and patents technology which is essential to establishing a standard (such as GSM), then that company is obliged to offer it on F/RAND [Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory] terms.

Nokia wanted to pay Apple 5% of revenue. That's exactly the same all other companies pay to Nokia under the FRAND rules. Just Apple wanted to pay less.
 
An interesting bit of musing from Gruber. Sadly, and not for the first time, he's off the mark and Vanjoki's quote is irrelevant to this case. Nokia sued, Apple have countersued. This is pretty normal for patent infringement.

It's just legal poker. Undoubtedly they've infringed each others patents over the years and this is just about balancing the books. I suspect that Nokia will be looking to introduce multi-touch in their new phones and the whole point of this exercise is to say "let it go: we can hurt you if you want and you can hurt us back and we both lose out".

That wasn't from Gruber.

It's the full text of Apple's claim.
 
You guys are all brainwashed zombies if you don't think Apple is stealing. It's amusing. You know Apple didn't event the phone, right?

"Sssshh..." I haven't told them to put their fingers in their ears and go "lalalalala" yet. ;)

Wouldn't Judge Marilyn Milan call this a "just because" counter-suit? I'm-offended-you-dare-sue-me-so-I'll-counter-sue-you-back. Often the defendant calls it "time for loss wages" (for showing up in court) or "emotional distress".

Doesn't work in a People's Court eppy.
 
Unless they settle out of court, apple will lose.

Besides, why the fuss about the iphone? It's nothing other than an overrated ipod anyway... :rolleyes:

:apple: peace
 
Nokia wanted to pay Apple 5% of revenue. That's exactly the same all other companies pay to Nokia under the FRAND rules. Just Apple wanted to pay less.

I'd say paying less would indeed just be fair.
After all the share of the questionable technology gets smaller with the growing complexity of the final system.

I guess that is why there is still no GSM module in every notebook, cause the 5% would be to expensive to pay for the whole product. much more reasonable to include a 30$ USB dongle where the patent fees are only a fraction.

why don't they make it flat priced per unit? like 5$ per device.

imagine Microsoft would ask the vendors to pay them for Windows in % of the Hardware Costs, OEM versions for high end computers would get rather expensive ;)
 
Apple seeem particularly stubborn about paying licensing fees. The Blu-ray comes to mind.
 
Apple seeem particularly stubborn about paying licensing fees. The Blu-ray comes to mind.

i know people (like me) who never ever use the optical drives. And be honest, would you prefer to have a second HDD, or battery inside a notebook, or that bulky thing that takes up such a big amount of space.

i hope Apple is taking the same steps as it did with the MacMinis and offer more Macs without optical drive. Sad the MBAir is trimmed to much for being fancy, a normal fast MacBookPro (13'') with usual BTO options but without the stupid optical drive would be my notebook of choice. especially when i get 10h battery life (bigger battery), and 2 HDDs )))
 
And be honest, would you prefer to have a second HDD, or battery inside a notebook, or that bulky thing that takes up such a big amount of space.

Well that totally depends on my needs. I for one DO need at least one computer with a BluRay Drive.
 
Well that totally depends on my needs. I for one DO need at least one computer with a BluRay Drive.

I'd rather have it in the AppleTV, the MacMini, or the iMac, PowerMacs but i can't imagine why they still but this drives into notebooks.

Recently we were hanging together with a friend and then he told like "i think Something happened with my Mac, it was never getting so noisy before."
We then realized that it was the drive in the Mac still burning a disc with some photos. And also that no one of us even remembered when we last used the drive before that. Flash got too convenient the last years...
 
I laughed at the part where Apple claims "unreasonable licensing agreements" as the reason they just went ahead and violated Nokia's patents and are now clearly hoping to get them to back off by suing them as well. Unreasonable licensing agreements? Apple? The same people who REFUSE TO LICENSE their operating system to ANYONE for ANY REASON? And that's not unreasonable? And then they're surprised when someone went ahead (like them it seems) and did it anyhow? Can you say HYPOCRITES? Yes, I knew you could.
 
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