Well, the day has arrived. Nokia and InterDigital will be battling it out in the courtroom starting today. The trial kicked off in the UK, and will set-off to see if InterDigital’s European patents are indeed essential to the wireless industry.
Apparently, Nokia was a bit peeved that InterDigital went to the US ITC asking for an investigation of Nokia for 3G patent licensing mis-steps and complained to a UK high-court that InterDigital’s 31 patents were misusing “the standard-setting process by asserting that many of its patents are essential when this is not the case.” Since the complaint was filed, InterDigital backed down from their assertion that 26 of its patents were essential – so the trial will only concern four remaining patents.
InterDigital has been after Nokia for quite some time for patenting violations and has been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars already. Now, Nokia is fighting back and hitting InterDigital where it hurts – it’s patent portfolio. Good for you Nokia! Fight the good fight.
[Via: Reuters]