Nokia Takes Apple Patent Battle to Europe

Nokia pushed its patent battle with Apple into more countries this week when it filed lawsuits against the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad maker in the U.K., Germany and Netherlands. The mobile phone maker claims the wireless technology Apple uses in its products infringe on patent protected technology.

“These actions add 13 further Nokia patents to the 24 already asserted against Apple in the US International Trade Commission and the Delaware and Wisconsin Federal courts,” said Nokia’s vice president of Intellectual Property, Paul Melin.

Nokia takes its patent fight with Apple to Europe

Nokia filed patent infringement lawsuits against Apple in October 2009 over the way wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption are handled by the iPhone. At the time of those filings, a Nokia executive commented “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.”

Apple responded with its own counter lawsuit at the end of 2009 alleging Nokia was violating 13 patents. At the time of the filing, Apple’s General Counsel and senior vice president, Bruce Sewell, said in a statement, “Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours.”

The new filings in Europe cover patents related to swipe gestures, accessing services with an on-device app store, touch interfaces, messaging, signal noise suppression, and more. The patents related to “using a wiping gesture on a touch screen to navigate content, or enabling access to constantly changing services with an on-device app store, both filed more than ten years before the launch of the iPhone,” Mr. Melin said.

Nokia’s lawsuit in the U.K. includes four patents, the lawsuit in Germany includes 12 patents, and in Netherlands the lawsuit covers two patents.

Apple hasn’t commented on Nokia’s latest lawsuits.