Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE: NOK) filed several lawsuits against Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) on allegations that the Cupertino-based iPhone maker infringed its 32 technology patents.
The Finnish company its patent infringement complaints against Apple in the in the Regional Courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Wednesday. It is also in the process of filing further cases against Apple in other jurisdiction.
Nokia is a provider of network infrastructure and related services globally. It is also focused on mobile broadband and advanced technology development and licensing.
Nokia failed to reach other licensing agreements with Apple
In a statement, Nokia said Apple into licensing agreements on some of its patents in 2011. The iPhone maker declined the subsequent offers of the Finnish company to lincese its other patented inventions that are used in many Apple products.
Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia said they negotiated with Apple regarding the licensing of its other technology patents for several years, but failed to reach an agreement.
Rahnasto also stated that Nokia created and contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in mobile devices today including Apple products through its investment in research and development (R&D).
Nokia is defending its patent rights
Furthermore, she pointed out that Nokia is now taking action to defend its patent rights againts the iPhone maker.
Nokia alleged that the 32 patents violated by the iPhone maker cover its technologies related to antennas, chipsets, displays, user interface, software, and video coding.
At present, Nokia owns three valuable portfolios of intellectual property after investing more than 115 billion euros in R&D over the past 20 years. The Finnish company recently acquired Alcatel-Lucent.
“Our tens of thousands of patents cover many important technologies used in smartphones, tablets, personal computers and similar devices,” said Nokia.
The iPhone maker has not yet released any statement regarding Nokia’s allegations. It is expected to deny the allegations.
The stock price of Nokia declined 2.86% to $4.76 per share on Wednesday. On the other hand, Apple’s shares gained less than 1% to $117.06 each.
