Posts Tagged ‘battle’
SCENARIOS-What lies ahead in Nokia vs Apple legal battle
January 9th, 2010
HELSINKI, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Finding a winner in the legal battle between Nokia (NOK1V.HE) and Apple (AAPL.O) will likely take years as the two cellphone giants use the courts to pressure each other into a licensing agreement.
Nokia dominates the global handset industry but has been losing ground in the high-end of the market to newer players like Apple, which started to sell its first iPhone model in mid-2007.
Analysts have said Nokia — holder of one of the strongest patent portfolio in wireless space, along with Ericsson (ERICb.ST) and Qualcomm (QCOM.O) — could seek patent infringement payments from Apple totalling as much 1 billion euros ($1.44 billion). [ID:nLN464459]
Following is an outline of the battle that is starting to unfold and what could come next:
DELAWARE, ITC CASES
In October, Nokia filed its first suit in the U.S. District Court of Delaware, saying Apple had infringed 10 patents in technologies like wireless data transfer, a key factor in the success of iPhone. [ID:nLM664007]
The patents also cover speech coding, security and encryption, and Nokia has alleged that they are infringed by all iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.
Apple countersued in Delaware in December, claiming Nokia is infringing 13 Apple patents. [ID:nN11260646] Nokia has until Feb. 8 to respond to the filing.
Cases like this usually last two to three years.
Apple last week also filed a complaint against Nokia with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). It did not release details.
Their filing follows one from Nokia, which said on Dec. 29 it had lodged a complaint with the ITC alleging Apple had infringed seven Nokia patents in “virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers” sold. [ID:nLDE5BS173]
Microsoft Gains an Ally in Its Antitrust Battle in Europe
April 20th, 2009
Microsoft gained a familiar ally in its latest antitrust battle with the European Commission on Monday when the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) was accepted as an interested third party in the case.
The software giant has a little more time to muster further supporters: Last week, the Commission granted Microsoft more time to respond to the formal statement of objections it issued in January, after already giving it a two-week extension. The new deadline is April 28.
ACT stood by Microsoft in an earlier case antitrust case that resulted in Microsoft being found guilty of monopoly abuse in 2004. It made passionate interventions during hearings with the European Commission, and during the appeals process at the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, which Microsoft also lost.
