Nokia Increases Scope of Patent Complaints to Include 'Virtually All' Apple Products

The legal battle between Nokia and Apple has been ratcheted up another notch today with Nokia's announcement that it has filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging infringement of Nokia-held patents by "virtually all" Apple products, including the iPhone, iPod, and Mac.

The seven Nokia patents in this complaint relate to Nokia's pioneering innovations that are now being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the area of user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies. These patented technologies are important to Nokia's success as they allow better user experience, lower manufacturing costs, smaller size and longer battery life for Nokia products.

Nokia filed suit against Apple in late October over alleged infringement of Nokia's cellular and Wi-Fi patents by the iPhone. Apple responded earlier this month with a countersuit of its own for infringement of its own patents. In its court filing, Apple argued that it was not infringing on Nokia's patents, and even if it were determined by a court that it was infringing, Nokia had not offered fair licensing terms, demanding reciprocal access to iPhone-related patents not relevant to industry standards.