The long-running patents battle between Apple and Nokia in the US has entered a dangerous new phase with the latest filing by Apple to the Federal Trade Commission requesting the blockage of Nokia smart-phone devices from entering the States.
In the latest development in this battle over patents, Apple has requested that the International Trade Commission consider blocking Nokia imports and examine alleged unfair trade practices that include patent, trademark and copyright infringement.
This saga has been running for months and the latest developments follow a lawsuit Nokia has brought against Apple claiming that the Silicon Valley computing giant infringed 10 Nokia mobile patents with the iPhone.
Nokia said the 10 patents in the suit relate to technologies fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption that Nokia claims are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.
Last month, Apple countersued Nokia, claiming that the Finnish mobile giant has infringed 13 Apple patents that include real-time signal processing, list scrolling, document translation, scaling and rotation on a touchscreen display.
By John Kennedy
