Los Angeles — Last year Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest manufacturers of mobile phones, sued Apple over violating its patent on wireless technology on the iPhone, has filed another patent-violation lawsuit against Apple Inc. in its latest salvo in a long-running legal battle between the two companies, claiming the iPad 3G and iPhone infringe five of its patents.
Nokia and Apple are involved in another dispute concerning the iPhone.
Nokia said it had registered a complaint in the Federal District Court in the Western District of Wisconsin, alleging that Apple’s iPhone and iPad 3G products infringements involve technology used to enhance speech and data transmission and antenna innovations for compact devices.
“We have taken this measure to safeguard the results of our pioneering development and to put an end to continued unlawful use of Nokia’s innovation,” said Paul Melin, general manager of patent licensing at Nokia.
In a statement, the company stated that throughout the past two decades Nokia has spent about $51bn (£34bn) in research and development and has rounded up 11,000 patents.
The iPad will go on sale in nine countries outside the US on 28 May, Apple says.
The lawsuit, the fifth patent allegation between the two companies in the past year over smartphone technology, now expanded the battle to include Apple’s iPad touch-screen computer tablet. Nokia’s filing today in federal court in Madison, Wisconsin, helped push Apple shares down 4.2 percent in New York trading, their steepest drop since Jan. 22.
The legal conflict began in October, when Espoo, Finland- based Nokia lodged a lawsuit accusing Apple of infringing 10 patents. It demanded royalties on the more than 51 million iPhones sold since Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, 55, introduced the device in 2007.
The five patents in the recent complaint corresponding to enhanced speech and data transmission, and antenna configurations that enhances performance and save space, Nokia said in a statement. The patents are not the same ones at issue in cases in a federal court in Delaware, and before the U.S. International Trade Commission, according to Laurie Armstrong, a Nokia spokeswoman.
“This suit shows Nokia is serious,” said Tero Kuittinen, an analyst at Greenwich, Connecticut-based MKM Partners who informs investors to sell Nokia shares. “Even in the last suit, they brought out everything but the kitchen sink, covering user interface, power consumption, speaker, camera. This is one of the broadest clusters of patent litigation in the sector over the past 10 years.”
Nokia is believed to be planning a range of “jumbo smartphones and tablets,” which could compete with the iPad, he said.
“These patented innovations are important to Nokia’s success as they allow improved product performance and design,” it said.
Meanwhile, Apple is also embroiled in another legal dispute with Taiwan’s HTC, maker of Google’s Nexus One phone, which it says has infringed patented technology.
These suits are often a accumulation of frivolousness and earnest attempts to defend inventions. One reason we have patent law is to reward creativity and innovation. We diminish the incentive to build the next great touchscreen technology or space-saving wireless feature if innovators expect that their new idea will simply be swiped by their competitor a few months after his product hit stores.
Mark Durrant, a Nokia spokesman, said the company expects the lawsuit filed today in Wisconsin to be resolved in 12 to 18 months.
The case is Nokia Corp. v. Apple Inc., 10cv249, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (Madison).