MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

 MacDailyNews Poll

Deal of the Day

5 Day Most Commented

Opinion Archive

Current Headlines

Latest Joy of Tech

  • Latest Joy of Tech!

MacNN

AppleInsider

Macworld UK

TUAW

MacRumors

Yahoo! Finance AAPL

iTunes Top 10 Albums

Mac OS X Downloads

Sat, Nov 28, 2009 - 08:24 AM EST  —  AAPL: 200.59 (-3.60, -1.76%)  |  NASDAQ: 2138.44 (-37.61, -1.73%)

Why Nokia is suing Apple over iPhone GSM/UMTS/WLAN patents and what’s really at stake
Friday, October 23, 2009 - 10:28 AM EST

12 Black Fridays of the Season"Nokia has filed suit over patent infringement on Apple’ iPhone, claiming that '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.' Actually the reverse is true," Daniel Eran Dilger writes for Roughly Drafted.

"As the world’s leader in handset sales by a wide margin, Nokia most certainly does have one of the 'strongest and broadest patent portfolios in the industry,' as the company says. And having licensed its technology to nearly every mobile maker in the industry, it’s not surprising that Apple will have to pay Nokia to play in the phone market," Dilger writes.

"However, Nokia is painting a picture that doesn’t doesn’t really mesh with reality, suggesting that Apple is a rogue manufacturer intent on breaking patent laws," Dilger writes. "In reality, Apple maintains one of the most experienced legal teams in the field of intellectual property, knows how the industry works, and either pays for IP or proves that it doesn’t need to."

Full article here.

Ashby Jones blogs for The Wall Street Journal, "It’s a fact of life that litigation is often used as a business tool — a set of flashing lights to get a competitor to sit up and take notice, or a cudgel to bring a more powerful company to the negotiating table. Analysts say such could be the case with Nokia here.

"'I really think this is more a function of Nokia trying to compete with Apple more than anything even if it’s through the courts,' said Shaw Wu, an analyst with Kaufman Brothers, adding that Nokia may be taking action now because the iPhone is starting to gain ground in Europe and Asia," Jones reports. "'It’s a non-event for Apple. It’s immaterial even if they pay a lump sum,' he said."

Jones reports, "Maybe so. But the NYT writes that the potential return to Nokia could be enormous. Typically, the royalties for essential patent portfolios in cellphones make up 1 percent to 2 percent of the wholesale price. The wholesale cost to wireless carriers of the iPhone is estimated to average about $600. A 2 percent royalty would represent $12 for each phone sold. In just the most recent quarter, Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones. It has sold more than 34 million total."

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Can't compete. Litigate.

Bookmark and Share

Always -- Free ground shipping with orders over $50 at the Apple Store.

Reader Feedback: = registered.
Unregistered users: Feedback from multiple usernames are subject to deletion. Off-topic and posts from suspected astroturfers will be removed.

Oct 23, 09 - 09:35 am Comment from: breeze

and even if the get payed , what are they going to do about getting laid?

Oct 23, 09 - 09:36 am Comment from: DogGone

Apple should not have to pay a percentage on the full price since the unit is multipurpose. They should pay royalty on the phone component or whatever part the patents cover.

Oct 23, 09 - 09:45 am Comment from: TowerTone

I was thinking about having eggs and bacon for breakfast but then I got a notice from Yesterday's TowerTone that he had thought of the same thing first....at least that's what Tomorrow's TowerTone told me today.

So I sued Tomorrow's TowerTone and settled with Yesterday's....

Oct 23, 09 - 09:47 am Comment from: HotinPlaya

when is Apple going to start enforcing some of their patents against all these copycat iPhone want to be !

Oct 23, 09 - 09:48 am Comment from: almux

Watch out Nokia: you might have few iPhone patents inside your next smartphones... ;oP

Oct 23, 09 - 09:48 am Comment from: x

Watergate ... Monicagate ... Blagogate ... now Litigate.

Never ends.

Oct 23, 09 - 09:51 am Comment from: Krioni

Or, perhaps Nokia will try to use this to negotiate a cross-licensing deal for some of Apple's patents. Then neither side pays money, and Nokia can do some things no one other than Apple can do. Very common thing for two corporations with big patent portfolios - they both infringe the others, so they cross-license. Nokia would benefit from that big-time, most likely.

Oct 23, 09 - 10:06 am Comment from: Jubei

Nokia has now shown to the public that their are scared sh*tless. Just like MDN says:

"Can't compete. Litigate."

Nokia is on that list of loser companies.

Oct 23, 09 - 10:08 am Comment from: Uther P.

breeze, don't you mean "layed"?

Oct 23, 09 - 10:13 am Comment from: jbooo

@ Krioni,
You are partly correct. Nokia IS suing, but not just for cross licensing rights, but BECAUSE Apple REFUSED to cross-license their IP to Nokia.
Nokia is painted into a corner right now because Apple has the stronger patent portfolio (Handset technology patents) going FORWARD. Since it's obvious Apple has the patents on touch screen technology, and that is a hot ticket for phones, Nokia would have to license it from Apple and they aren't playing ball the way Nokia wants them to. So, as MDN said before, when you can't compete, litigate. Apple's share of IP infringement is a drop in the bucket compared to the amounts they will make if and when their competitors start infringing on their IP patents.

Oct 23, 09 - 10:15 am Comment from: Macaday

Just wait 'til we hear that others were asked to pay 50c and not $12 for the same licenses...then the sh1t will hit the fan.

Oct 23, 09 - 10:33 am Comment from: Alx

Here I fixed it..

"Nokia has filed suit over patent infringement on Apple’ iPhone, claiming that '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.' Actually the reverse is true," Daniel Eran Dilger whines for the Macboy extreme site, Roughly Drafted.

" Nokia licensed its technology to nearly every mobile maker in the industry, but they're not Apple. Apple is the best and shouldn't have to pay anything to anyone ever" Dilger whines. Let's face it, any company in existence sucks and theie equipment is "junky and clunky". Apple skates to where the puck is going to be! The back of our phone looks better than the front of everyone elses! It's soooo elegant and delicious looking!

Roughly drafted, ... about as credible as say, MDN

Oct 23, 09 - 10:54 am Comment from: ron

"payed , what are they going to do about getting laid."

Paid rhymes with laid/layed. Do you get laid or layed?

Oct 23, 09 - 10:55 am Comment from: ron

Of course then there's plaid, which rhymes with sad.

Oct 23, 09 - 11:09 am Comment from: alansky

Steve Jobs has referred to Nokia as a good company that makes good products. But it Nokia wants to play dirty, Apple will bury them—not in the courts, but in the marketplace.

Oct 23, 09 - 11:12 am Comment from: rdbvideo

When you go to Hawaii, you get lei`d.

Oct 23, 09 - 11:16 am Comment from: @Alx

Why isn't Roughly Drafted credible? Let's see an example. Or like every other strangely obsessed member of the I Hate Daniel Eran Dilger And I Must Remind The World About It Anytime Somebody Mentions His Name Club, are you somehow always at a loss to provide evidence of the oh-so-outrageous inaccuracy of his articles?

Also, why are you credible? Let's see an example there, too.

Oct 23, 09 - 11:28 am Comment from: Register or Login

Ahhhhhh....Now it makes sense.

Hire money grubbing attorneys for $2 - $5 million in legal fees and hopefully recoup $408,000,000.00. If not, just write it off as a business expense and raise product prices to cover the loss and screw the consumer.

Oct 23, 09 - 11:30 am Comment from: The Dude

Umm, they are claiming infringement from the original iPhone from 2 years ago in the lawsuit. I thought there was something about promptly defending your patent, not waiting years then crying foul.

The Dude abides.

Oct 23, 09 - 11:30 am Comment from: @MDN

iCalled!!

MDN..just make sure you don't whine even the slightest bit when Apple sues a cell phone vendor due to infringement in the future.

MDN are you aware that your take pretty much gives the green light for everybody else to use Apple's iPhone patents without any worry? Apple can compete right, so they don't need to react to "silly" patent infringments.

Oct 23, 09 - 11:31 am Comment from: breeze

@ Uther P:

Past and past participle of lay is: laid ...

Oct 23, 09 - 01:41 pm Comment from: Mac user but not Iphone user

Perhaps the massively innovative Apple corporation should develop it's own network technology, rather than stealing the one others have innovated and developed.

That shouldn't take longer than few minutes and cost maybe a few meal tickets at the Cupertino cafe. Better option than stealing other peoples technology anyway.

Oct 23, 09 - 04:18 pm Comment from: Felipe

I desagree with you. I'm a long-term apple user, but I also find Nokia very competitive. Don't think apple is the best, and you should not think it. If Nokia does it, probably it is because of the same reason Apple would litigate if someone does the same. On the other hand I want to see more competition between these two, so more innovation comes around. BTW I'm looking forward to see the N900!!

Oct 23, 09 - 08:35 pm Comment from: An Optimist

$400 mil? That's cab fare for Apple.

Oct 24, 09 - 07:03 am Comment from: So Su(o)mi

Boycott Nokia, Finland, and Finnish products. :oP

Oct 26, 09 - 03:49 am Comment from: bioness

Very simple, Apple will get pissed off at the GSM standard. They'll jump in, re-invent a new standard, make it cheaper than Nokia, get the other manufacturers involved with the new standard...

And kapish, nokia's gone

Oct 28, 09 - 12:40 am Comment from: Bill's Evil

It depends on whether you are laying pipe or what. Anyways, there are plenty of hot Scandinavian babes who put out whether you infringe their patents or not.

Reader feedback page 1 of 1 pages:

Always -- Free ground shipping with orders over $50 at the Apple Store.

Add Your Feedback:

Register or Login

Name:

Email: (optional)

Emoticons | Allowed HTML Tags

Remember my info   Notify me of follow-up comments?

Please enter the "MDN Magic Word" you see in the image below: