Nokia and Apple to clash over touchscreen cellphone patents?

by Thomas Ricker posted Nov 28th 2007 at 6:46AM

So by now you've heard about a little multi-touch device called the iPhone right? And you're well aware that Nokia is set to deliver their new S60 Touch Interface and likely a few new touch-screen devices sometime in 2008. Well, according to Richard Windsor, an analyst with London-based Nomura, Nokia could see "delays or holdups" in its smartphone strategy if Apple decided to unleash its army of lawyers in defense of its over 200 iPhone-related patent filings. (Note: that's "filings" not patents granted for intellectual property.) According to Mr. Windsor, "I think Apple will likely view Nokia as infringing on its user interface patents." Having said that, he further speculates that Apple and Nokia will likely end up in a settlement by 2009 in order to avoid a lengthy Qualcomm vs. Nokia battle in the courts. Of course, in a system whereby laggards and leaders attempt to gain or maintain competitive advantage through lawsuits and lobbyists rather than the innovations of their own engineers, anything goes. And yeah, we know there are a lot of ifs in there. Still, don't forget that Apple failed to defend the "look and feel" of its Mac OS in court against Microsoft back in the Windows 2.0 days, and Nokia's been making touchscreen devices for years, not months like Apple. So, lesson learned or big trouble in little Espoo, what say you? We're guessing the latter if that demonstration device (on the right) is ever released.

Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Apple

Tags: analyst, apple, lawsuit, nokia, patent, s60, speculation

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

josh68684 @ Nov 28th 2007 11:47AM

hmmm.......fu** apple!!!!

go nokia!!!!!

Neutral

uiguy @ Nov 28th 2007 9:42AM

Unknown: how many patents and/or filings does Nokia - who's been in the phone business a whee bit longer than Apple - hold that the iPhone might violate? It's not like Nokia doesn't have a huge R&D effort and lawyers of its own....

Could be very interesting! Usually the companies just cross license or ignore each other rather than take it to court, but we'll see what happens.

Neutral

Mike @ Nov 28th 2007 3:23PM

Ummm... I doubt Nokia has many patents in the touchscreen realm. Before flip-flopping, some big-wig at Nokia stated touchscreens were NOT the way to go.

Neutral

Karl Viklund @ Nov 28th 2007 10:16AM

Apple should protect their patents.

Neutral

John P. @ Nov 28th 2007 10:25AM

slick clean photograph

vs.

greasy lo-res camera phone photo with the scary dude on it.

looks like someone was thinking, and someone is just hurrying to catch up to me.

Highly Ranked

Omagus @ Nov 28th 2007 11:19AM

OR it could simply be that one was actually intended to be displayed as an ad while the other is just a convenient screen capture.

I agree that trying to gain a technological advantage via lawsuits instead of innovation is counterproductive. I mean, really...as cool as the iPhone is, can there possibly be up to 200 unique things on it that have never previously been used on a mobile phone? I can understand if another company blatantly steals your design (like Meizu) but why are you sweating the small stuff? Just keep innovating and making better products. Everyone will be better off then.

Neutral

John P. @ Nov 28th 2007 11:32AM

I agree with you about innovating, but,... a company's real value is in it's inventions, especially today, where products can be cheaply built using borderline slave labor in some other part of the world. If a company doesn't have some control of how it profits using it's intellectual property it won't be a company very long will it.

Neutral

mic22 @ Nov 28th 2007 3:34PM

Apple didn�t invent anything. Touchscreen by Apple? Come on people... Thank god Apples "I own touchscreen" is not possible in Europe.

Neutral

Grimnir @ Nov 28th 2007 1:21PM

Apple didn't defend the look and feel of their OS vs Microsoft because they stole it from Xerox... Opening that can of worms wouldn't have been very prudent.

Neutral

soulxside @ Nov 28th 2007 10:00PM

I'm surprised they're only going after nokia - didn't apple invent the phone and talking to other people? They should be going after everyone.

Neutral

argonnj @ Nov 28th 2007 5:56PM

Nokia's been making touchscreen devices for years, not months like Apple

They have?? Nokia has been dead set against touch screens until just recently.

Neutral

jamma @ Nov 28th 2007 6:54PM

I think they're talking about the various internet tablets nokia have had around for a few years now, which actually were the first multimedia orientated touch screen phones(HTC were too business-like)

I'm thinking of the 7700 by the way, announced in 2003, and incidentally had EDGE. 4 years later, Apple are suing because of a patent for their 2007 phone with EDGE.

No fanboy-ism here before anyone says anything, i'm just giving some facts

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_7700-570.php for more details