Apple hits back in Nokia patent war

The bitter row between Nokia and Apple escalated yesterday when Apple responded to a lawsuit alleging it had infringed on the Finnish handset giant’s patents with a countersuit.

Nokia launched the suit against Apple in October claiming the US group’s iPhone infringed 10 of its patents, saying it was “trying to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation”.

Apple hit back yesterday as it claimed Nokia had “copied” the iPhone and in doing so infringed 13 of its patents. In a terse statement, Bruce Sewell, Apple’s general counsel and senior vice president said: “Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies not by stealing ours.”

The claim, filed in the US District Court of Delaware, denied infringement and said Nokia’s strategy to focus on traditional mobile wireless handsets with conventional user interfaces after the launch of the iPhone meant it “rapidly lost share in the market for high-end mobile phones.

“Nokia has admitted that, as a result of the iPhone launch, ‘the market changed suddenly and [Nokia was] not fast enough changing with it’. In response, Nokia chose to copy the iPhone, especially its enormously popular and patented design and user interface.”

Nokia is after $1bn from Apple for the alleged infringement of patents related to Wireless data, security and encryption, after talks over a license fee failed.

Ilkka Rahnasto, vice president of legal and intellectual property at Nokia said at the time that Nokia had invested €40bn in research and development over two decades.

“The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for. Apple is also expected to follow the principle,” he said.

While Nokia dominates the smartphone market, it has failed to release a flagship “high end” device to compete with the iPhone, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry or the Palm Pre.

Its total share of the smartphone market – where it dominates with low and mid-range devices with low margins – sunk to an all time low of 39 per cent in September.