Nokia seeking access to Samsung documents to aid its patent lawsuit battle with Apple

The back-and-forth patent lawsuits between Apple and Nokia could be about to get more interesting. Nokia is seeking access to documents from Samsung’s patent battles with Apple to assist its own case.

Apple sued Nokia last year, claiming that the company had deliberately excluded some patents from an agreement between the two companies, subsequently transferring five of them to a patent troll which unsuccessfully tried to extort $100M from the Cupertino company. Apple seemingly filed the lawsuit in an attempt to head off any further such attempts …

Nokia hit back with its own lawsuit, accusing Apple of several instances of patent infringement. It is now seeking to get access to documents and deposition testimony from Samsung’s own patent-related legal battles with Apple.

Patently Apple spotted that Nokia has issued a motion for a court in Washington DC to grant it access to the materials which is says are ‘highly relevant’ to its own dispute with Apple.

The Letter seeks documents and deposition testimony from Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., based in the Republic of Korea. The evidence sought by Nokia is highly relevant to the Investigation and unobtainable by other means.

The motion claims that the evidence it seeks has already been ruled to be relevant, reasonably limited and timely. Check out our earlier coverage for more background on the case.

Photo: CNBC