Disqus
A little less than 2 months ago Nokia sued Apple for violating 10 patents the Finnish company deemed critically for making GSM, UMTS, WCDMA and WiFi work. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said Apple may be looking at paying $200 to $400 million in damages, while Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston said that figure was close to $1 billion. Nilay Patel, a former lawyer, currently Editor at Engadget, has done a fantastic job breaking down what charges Nokia is brining against Apple and the likely outcome of the case. Everyone was expecting Apple to simply pay up or to let Nokia use some of their patents, well I’m happy to report that Apple has brought drama to the situation by countersuing Nokia. Their press release posted in full:
CUPERTINO, California—December 11, 2009—Responding to a lawsuit brought against the company by Nokia, Apple® today filed a countersuit claiming that Nokia is infringing 13 Apple patents.
“Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours,” said Bruce Sewell, Apple’s General Counsel and senior vice president.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.
Holy. Shit. A one line kick in the nuts response that is going to wake Finland up, regardless of how little sun there is this time of year.
Update: While I’m still busy trying to find the document Apple sent to the courts when filing their countersuit in PDF format, Varun from FoneArena was nice enough to link me to the document on Docstoc. 3.5 MB PDF file with Apple’s countersuit available via Engadget. I’m still in the process of reading all 79 pages, but here it is, on page 3, Apple calling out Anssi Vanjoki for hit “copy with pride” quote:
Update: And again on page 23:
About The Author
Stefan Constantinescu
Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.
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Stefan Constantinescu
