Nokia has sued Apple in 11 countries. Here is why?

Nokia said, it was suing Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of violating 32 technology patents. On Thursday, the Finnish telecoms equipment maker said it had now filed 40 patent suits. Nokia’s acted after Apple’s legal action targeting the one-time cellphone industry leader a day earlier.

Nokia Corp has said it has filed lawsuits against Apple Inc in 11 countries over 40 patents covering technologies such as displays, software and chipsets, in what can only be reminiscent of the Apple-Samsung battle.

Nokia said on Wednesday it was suing Apple, accusing the iPhone maker of violating 32 technology patents. On Thursday, the Finnish telecoms equipment maker said it had now filed 40 patent suits. Nokia’s acted after Apple’s legal action targeting the one-time cellphone industry leader a day earlier.

Nokia, which was the largest cellphone maker before being decimated by Apple and other Android handset makers, believes that the iPhone wouldn’t have been possible without it sharing its patents with Apple for royalty for the last few years.

The company claimed that it had filed the patents after putting in a lot of investment into research which it thinks need to come back from Apple.

The contract between Nokia and Apple that was scripted five years ago is about to expire on December 31. Apple has paid royalties during the last five years but Nokia wants it to keep paying for it along with licensing other additional patents that the Finnish company came up with.

However, Apple has said that Nokia’s demand qualify as extortion and is refusing to pay anything. But the lawsuits are the result of an impasse after two to three years of tense negotiations between the two companies.

“Apple is saying, we want to pay one low price and not have to deal with any of your patents again,” Clem Roberts, an intellectual property lawyer at Durie Tangri in San Francisco, told the New York Times (NYT). “Nokia is saying, ‘I don’t want that low price because my patents are worth more than that.’”

Another industry expert, on conditions of anonymity, said that the impasse signifies the struggle of erstwhile handset players like Motorola, Ericsson and Nokia to gain from the booming smartphone industry.

“Obviously, the iPhone was not created on a green field but was built on what others created before Apple,” Florian Mueller, a German iPhone app developer and former consultant to technology companies, was quoted as saying by the NYT. “On the other hand, the iPhone was a paradigm shift. It was more of a mobile computer than a mobile phone,” Mueller, who has followed the cell phone patent wars, added.

Patent-makers such as Nokia can now use a US supreme court ruling nearly 10 years ago, which said that patent owners had to stop selling their devices if the patent was violated, to their advantage.

Nokia’s shares were down nearly 5% at 4.496 euros on Thursday as analysts warned a legal battle with Apple could hold up royalty payments that are vital to shoring up the Finnish company’s profits.

Apple vs FBI 

 

Legal dispute Apple with the FBI concluded on Monday, but experts say the problems behind it will come up again as more technology companies take steps to protect messages from clients, photos, business records and other files.

After weeks of intense debate, in which Apple had resisted the demand FBI for help, authorities say they found their own way to get data from an iPhone encryption used by one of the shooters mass San Bernardino.

Confused by all the back and forth in this dispute high risk? AP explains:

What was the fight about?

Specifically, the government wanted Apple to create software that would nullify a function of "self-clean" which is designed to launch later someone makes 10 attempts to guess the password wrong iPhone.

CEO Tim Cook said the order set a precedent for more government demands, both in the US and all the world.Apple told The software could be stolen by hackers and used against other iPhones.

Federal authorities insisted they were only asking for help from Apple in one case, although prosecutors across the country have said they wanted similar assistance in other cases that have intervened iPhones. Although it is not clear whether any useful information is stored in the iPhone, FBI Director James Comey said authorities were victims of San Bernardino leave no stone unturned in their investigation.

Why this becomes a great business?

The case crystallized some frustrations persist for a long time and conflicts between the authorities of the technology industry and law enforcement. Apple and other technology companies have been increasing steadily the use of encryption and other security measures to protect customer data, following a wave of attacks from hackers and the latest revelations on the collection of data by the former government contractor for the National Security Agency Edward Snowden.

Police officers, including Comey, have complained that encryption and other data protection measures are helping to dangerous people hide their activities, and interferes with the ability of the government to investigate the crimes.

In the case of San Bernardino, Apple gained the support of other leading technology companies, computer security experts and civil liberties groups. They filed legal briefs arguing that the government was going too far in trying to force a company to create software that threatened the security of their own customers.

WHAT will the judge decide?

The judge does not have to discard. Cook had said he was prepared to take the case to the US Supreme Court .. But last week, a day before Judge Sheri Pym had planned to carry out a hearing on the dispute, the Justice Department asked a delay . Authorities said an anonymous "outsider" had been presented with a technical solution to unlock the phone, the FBI needed time to test.

Then on Monday of this week, the government said it had managed to access iPhone files and no longer need help from Apple. For that reason, the Justice Department asked the judge to withdraw the order issued in February.

So who won?

Each side can claim victory: Authorities say they achieved their goal of entering the iPhone, while Apple successfully resisted a court order holding that would be detrimental to its customers.

In the court of public opinion, Apple made a strong argument that stood for its customers, and an important principle. However, some people may believe that the company should have done more to help the police.

What that end the matter?

Probably ends the dispute for iPhone, but it is not the last well hear of this issue.

Police officers across the country still want to enter other iPhones. The FBI has not said how he got into the iPhone San Bernardino, but may be able to use the same method in other cases. And we do not know who provided the solution using the FBI. It is possible that the method was devised by a private forensic expert or company will sell the service to other customers in the future.

Apple, of course, want to know which method uses the FBI so the company can decide if an iPhone vulnerability that needs to be fixed. Even if the FBI does not tell them, security experts predict Apple and other technology companies keep adding more security measures for its products.

  Some lawmakers have discussed limiting the amount of aid that the government can require technology companies, while others want to require high-tech companies to provide more assistance in the future.