Nokia To Sue Apple Over iPhone Technology

Nokia, the largest manufacturer of mobile phones on the planet, has announced that they will be suing software giants Apple for technology used in the Apple iPhone, of which Nokia claim is part of a patent they own.

The iPhone, which has sold millions of handsets, is the world’s most popular smart phone. However, Nokia claim that key pieces of technology, of which Nokia has patents for, were used by Apple, and the company had not signed the contract to use the technology, and had not paid to useit.

Nokia claim that several aspects of the Apple iPhone have originated from Nokia “innovation”, including security and encryption and wireless capabilities. More than forty different corporations are in partnership with Nokia to use this specific technology, but Apple is not one of them.

The company’s Legal and Intellectual Property Department said that the “basic principle” in the mobile industry is that certain companies research and built technology, and other firms need to compensate the researchers for this.

Since its release, the iPhone has been a major hit around the world and somewhat on the forefront of the mobile industry. Apple’s profits continue to grow from the iPhone, whilst Nokia makes loses. If Nokia can prove that a significant amount of technology used in the iPhone is owned by them, I wonder what the long term effects will be. Surely Apple will have realized that they wouldn’t have gotten away with using patented technology without permission for ever. That is if they are proved liable.

I wonder if this will be the re-incarnation of the Skype and Jotlid issue which put Skype’s future in serious doubt. Will Apple be able to continue to sell the iPhone with the current capabilities it has. Nokia claim every release and version of the iPhone has used the patented technology. Could we see some big changes in the iPhone as we know it.

We’ll have to wait and see what the outcome is.