Nokia files another ITC complaint against Apple

FINNISH PHONE MAKER Nokia has filed a second ITC complaint against Apple as it seeks legal redress for what it sees as a number of patent violations.

This week Apple won a round when the ITC found, in an initial finding, that it was not infringing patents. This cannot have gone down well at Nokia, which told the INQUIRER that it was considering what to do next.

"While Nokia does not agree with the ITC's initial determination that there has been no violation, we'll wait to see the full details of the ruling before we decide on any next steps," it said.

Those next steps are taking a familiar route as today the firm said that it had filed another complaint with the ITC that claims Apple is infringing additional patents in "virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, tablets and computers."

Seven Nokia patents have been raised in the complaint and Nokia said that they carried out important tasks on devices including multi-tasking operating systems, data synchronisation, positioning, call quality and the use of Bluetooth accessories. Or, in other words, just about everything.

"Our latest ITC filing means we now have 46 Nokia patents in suit against Apple, many filed more than 10 years before Apple made its first iPhone," said Paul Melin, VP of intellectual property at Nokia.

"Nokia is a leading innovator in technologies needed to build great mobile products and Apple must stop building its products using Nokia's proprietary innovation."

The firm added that as well as these two ongoing ITC complaints it has raised similar cases in courts in Delaware in the US as well as in Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. µ