Nokias lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the iPhone infringes 10 of Nokias patents, could result in settlement even higher than the $612 million (375 million involved in the Blackberry case in 2006. But in contrast with that earlier case, this one is unlikely to lead to threats to cut-off the iPhones 30 million users.
Thats the view of Nicholas Fox, a Chartered Patent Attorney at London-based Ipulse, who says:
This legal action is all about getting Apple to pay for the technology that Nokia says is covered by its patents. Whereas in 2006, Canadian company NTP could have shut down the Blackberry service, there appears to be little likelihood this time of Nokia making similar threats against Apple.
A big difference between the two cases is that the Nokia mobile phone technology is already available to other companies, through a patent pool. Rob Jackson, a Patent Attorney at Frank B. Dehn, explains how the system works:
Basically, if a patent is essential to a particular mobile phone standard, such as GSM, all the companies involved agree to grant a licence at a fair rate. Normally, licences are granted only for the technologies needed to operate the standard. For example, so that the phones can talk to each other and the network operates properly. Nice to have features are not covered. It is up to the companies to sort this out between them and the licences are granted company-to-company.
It seems that Apple is using technology for its iPhone which Nokia claims has not been paid for by the US corporation.
Apple may argue that the patents are not valid, so it does not have to pay a licence fee, says Fox. Alternatively, it might claim that Nokias patents dont apply to that part of the standard that affects the iPhone.
Ilya Khazi, a Patent Attorney at Mathys and Squire, says that the case will probably be settled before any potential injunction against iPhone sales is enforced.
The timing of the lawsuit is intriguing, he says, given that the iPhone is set to go mainstream in the UK, with Orange and Vodafone planning to sell it in the near future.
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