Apple takes UK legal action against Nokia

Apple’s legal department have extended the courtroom battle with Nokia in the US to the UK, launching litigation against Nokia in the UK.

Apple is accusing Nokia of infringing nine smartphone patents in an extension of a courtroom drama which began in December last year in reaction to an earlier lawsuit filed by Nokia against Apple.

In a statement, Nokia said it wasn’t surprised at Apple’s move, arguing that Apple has infringed ten Nokia patents related to wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption.

“It changes nothing in the fundamentals of the matter, which are rooted in Apple’s refusal to respect Nokia’s intellectual property and attempt to free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation,” Nokia said in a statement.

Apple argues this to be a tit-for-tat battle. Apple’s Brian Sewell said (in December) ”Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies — not just by stealing ours.”

Nokia’s suit alleged that Apple had infringed ten patents relating to “one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA), and wireless LAN standards” with the iPhone, and was filed back in October.  At the time, Nokia’s VP of legal was quoted as saying “By refusing to agree appropriate terms for Nokia’s intellectual property, Apple is attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation.”

Apple’s December lawsuit is pasted below.

http://viewer.docstoc.com/
// AAPL-NOKCountersuit –