Apple has taken its time to respond to Nokia’s patent infringement lawsuit of two months ago, but it has come out fighting, saying: ‘Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.’ This was the statement of Apple’s general counsel Bruce Sewell, as Apple filed suit, alleging that Nokia was infringing on 13 of its patents.
Apple’s filing implies that Nokia initiated its own suit, which focuses on essential 3G patents, as it came under competitive pressure from the ‘revolutionary’ iPhone. Nokia, says Apple’s document, “made a different business decision and remained focused on traditional mobile wireless handsets with conventional user interfaces…. As a result, Nokia has 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 it was not fast enough changing with it.’
The filing goes on: ‘Nokia chose to copy the iPhone, especially its enormously popular and patented design and user interface.”
When Nokia sued Apple in October, it claimed Apple had refused to agree to licensing terms for 10 of Nokia’s patents, even though these are widely licensed by other handset makers, and it argued that the iPhone maker was “attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation”.
The tit-for-tat lawsuits show both suppliers retreating to their areas of strength, since their filings focus on very different areas of intellectual property ‘ Nokia in 3G communications, Apple in user interfaces. Apple has been surprisingly reticent in taking legal action over its patents, despite long running speculation that it would sue rivals such as Palm or Google Android in areas such as multitouch.
Our view here is that this is because those patents are tenuous at best. Apple tried to register patents for the interface on the iPod and ended up paying $100 million in royalties to Creative Technology on patent infringements relating to the iPod click wheel design. For instance rivals like Synaptics might claim that it has a better patent position regarding touch and gestures and might license these to Nokia for considerably less than Apple might (see separate story in this issue).
Apple probably would not have begun the process of litigation until it found itself called on the cellular patents. It will now have to pump up its patent strength in order to get any kind of quid pro quo against Nokia. After all Nokia is the only major that has not really resorted to capacitive screens which facilitate the same kind of interface as the iPhone, whereas Motorola, LG and Samsung have all done so. Most Nokia touch screens come with a stylus rather than gesture controls.
The spat is different to many patent lawsuits, since both sides have something of real value to offer. These are no patent trolls, but two rivals conducting their cross-licensing negotiations in public and potentially in the courts. It seems undeniable that Nokia has rights to royalties for its patents, which are an essential part of industry standards and widely licensed. The real question is how much value lies in Apple’s patents, and therefore how far this would offset the payments it makes to Nokia. And of course, the real reason to conduct this argument outside closed rooms, is to reiterate, very publicly, the two firms’ competitive positioning, as they enter a year of cut-throat competition.