I'm sorry, mgamber, but if Nokia wasn't desperate and just worried about patent infringement they would've called Apple out on aforementioned infringement when the first iPhone came out three years ago.
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Nokia Files iPhone-Related Suit Against Apple Regarding Wireless Patents
- Thread starter ChazUK
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Nokia must protect its patents...
Protect them or lose them.
Apple would do the same.
Simple.
I think we would have heard about it before now...
could be wrong though, what do I know!
you basically cant make a phone without nokia's patents haha..so yeah they have a case...I dont think anyone doubts that. The problem becomes how much apple is willing to pay Nokia. Apple wants to pay little. Nokia wants bigger pay. no agreement in the past 3 years so now an official lawsuit that will last another 5-10 years easy.
Agreed they are jealous of all the attention Apple is getting while their old phones are in the corner so they want some of Apple's billions.
Apple comes out with iPhone.
Nokia does breakdown, tells Apple what it think it owes based on its IP rights.
Apple denies Nokia's IP rights or offers a lesser amount than Nokia requires.
Nokia refuses Apple's offer and demands its perceived due.
Apple refuses or counters Nokia's demands.
This whole thing is going on between and through lawyers, which is never a speedy process. 2-3 years makes sense considering what is at stake.
So its taken the close to 3 years to see that Apple is infringing on their patents.
"Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation."
And no one gets a free ride off of Apple's innovation?
And no one gets a free ride off of Apple's innovation?
We'll see what iPhone and/or computer tech patents Apple owns that they can strike back with. AFAIK they haven't yet sued anyone who has ripped off the iPhone. And let's not forget Nokia wouldn't even have a usable browser on their phones if not for Webkit.
It won't last ten years if Nokia get an injunction against Apple selling iPhones.
Maybe Apple will have to cross-license some of its multi-touch patents and more to Nokia.
Because they've just lost a shed load of money and desperately need to think of ways and means of recouping it!
Because Apple wouldn't agree to terms. Thus, Nokia has clearly been negotiating with them before this was brought to suit.
Personally, I think this is pre-emptive. Probably, with the upcoming N900, and adding touch UI's to Symbian, Nokia probably wants to license some of the patents Apple added to multi-touch (since Apple doesn't own multi-touch itself). So, they're probably trying to leverage that process.
The end result will probably be a settlement that includes:
- some form of one-time payment from Apple to cover past infringement
- some form of patent sharing agreement that lets Apple keep shipping the iPhone, and lets Nokia utilize iPhone-like multi-touch on their products.
Even if it's unlrelated to Apple's success, this suit is a clear indication that Nokia is desperate for funds. Their share is dropping, their cheap phones are getting embarrassing, Symbian is ancient, and you've got the ignominy of the world's largest smartphone vendor being shown up constantly by a competitor that entered the game and redefined it virtually overnight.
IP issue or not, Nokia is a lumbering dinosaur, and its management is slowly realizing that its cheap phones can only be spread around so much before they beging to stink like the turds they are.
Every phone maker needs these patents to make a phone. Every other phone maker has paid up.
Nokia has said they have been in negotiations, but they must have stalled and further action by Nokia has been taked to get things underway.
Says who? Nokia uses Opera-mini on Symbian, and Mozilla on Maemo. Last I checked, neither is webkit based.
That's kind of the first thing I thought. I mean, Apple has been guilty of stuff like this before, but why would Nokia wait 2.5 years to bring this up?
The only thing different between 2007 and now is that then many respected pundits - including Ballmer himself - said the iPhone would flop and now Nokia has consistently lost market share.
Smacks of sour grapes.
Yeah, it was ok until they posted a loss and realised that they haven't got any products to rival the iPhone. Better sue then..
I'm no expert on patents but this seems daft. So they expect Apple, a newcomer to the mobile phone industry, to reinvent the wheel to get their product just to fundamentally work? How can Nokia have a patent for making a phone call? Or accessing the network over one or more networks??
Surely, patents are to protect against specific innovations that distinguish one product from another (such as multi-touch or whatever). How can the fundamentals like making the phone work be covered by this, no matter how many hours Nokia has sweated over to get there in the first place??
Furthermore, won't Nokia just be inviting Apple's lawyers to sue the hell out of them? I'm sure the Nokia N97 (their new touchscreen one) violates at least one of Apple's patents. And we all know Apple has better lawyers than everyone else...
I bet the quibble isn't over money, but the exchange of patent licenses. Nokia wants to have a better touch-screen experience for Maemo and Symbian. I'm sure Apple doesn't want that AT ALL.
Yeah, it was ok until they posted a loss and realised that they haven't got any products to rival the iPhone. Better sue then..
I'm no expert on patents but this seems daft. So they expect Apple, a newcomer to the mobile phone industry, to reinvent the wheel to get their product just to fundamentally work? How can Nokia have a patent for making a phone call? Or accessing the network over one or more networks??
Surely, patents are to protect against specific innovations that distinguish one product from another (such as multi-touch or whatever). How can the fundamentals like making the phone work be covered by this, no matter how many hours Nokia has sweated over to get there in the first place??
Furthermore, won't Nokia just be inviting Apple's lawyers to sue the hell out of them? I'm sure the Nokia N97 (their new touchscreen one) violates at least one of Apple's patents. And we all know Apple has better lawyers than everyone else...
Other companies pay Nokia licenses.
btw....someone dig up the old thread where one of the apple executives said "We will protect our IP" or something liek that in response to the Palm Pre.
There wre people here praising the suing of Palm hoping it happened.
Unbelievable.
Personal pet-peeve - but as an FYI, don't use absolutes in argument that you can't back-up with proof. You have no way of knowing that - or proving it and it's easy for anyone to point that out.
I'm not sure that it's unrealistic to think that they've been negotiating for this long. How long ago did Apple "threaten" to sue Palm and yet no lawsuit has come out yet?
It is possible that Apple was just talking tough, it's also possible that they're still investigating patents, it's possible that Palm didn't violate anything, it's also possible that they did but now they're just negotiating a solution. We can't assume that these things happen quickly and shouldn't be surprised that it's taken so long. The timing might just be coincidental.
Wow. Apple must've been desperate for money too, suing Pystar, and threatening anyone who uses an apple-ish logo.
Or... maybe, just maybe... do you think it could be because they all have legitimate IP issues?