Nokia filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday that alleges nearly every Apple product violates its patents. The complaint claims that Mac computers, the iPhone and the iPod all infringe on Nokia's patents.
Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple in October over allegations that technology used in the iPhone infringed on its patents related to GSM, UMTS and WLAN standards. The case, which was filed in Federal District Court in Delaware, claimed Apple hasn't paid licensing fees for the wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption technologies used in the iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.
"Companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for. Apple is also expected to follow this principle," commented Ilkka Rahnasto, Nokia's Vice President of Legal and Intellectual Property.
Apple fired back with its own patent infringement suit against Nokia in early December. Bruce Sewell, General Counsel and senior vice president for Apple, said in a statement, "Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours."
Even though Nokia's ITC filing relates to the same technologies, the company doesn't see the action as redundant to its earlier law suit. "This action is about protecting the results of such pioneering development," commented Paul Melin, Nokia's General Manager of Patent Licensing. "While our litigation in Delaware is about Apple's attempt to free-ride on the back of Nokia investment in wireless standards, the ITC case filed today is about Apple's practice of building its business on Nokia's proprietary innovation."