Judge Says The iPhone Didn't Violate Nokia's Patents

from the regret-pushing-the-button dept

Nokia, who used to absolutely dominate the mobile phone market, has definitely seen better days. The iPhone really took it by surprise and the company really hasn't done a particularly good job reacting to the rise of the smartphone market. So, like plenty of companies who once innovated, once it started losing in the market, it shifted to litigation. Just a week after the company's first ever quarterly loss, it sued Apple for patent infringement over the iPhone. It actually took two cracks at Apple in that it also used the ITC loophole to go after the company twice.

Of course, in true patentland fashion, when a big tech company sues another big tech company for patent infringement, patent nuclear war ensues, as Apple sued back claiming that Nokia infringed on its patents. While the various lawsuits are still ongoing, it appears that Nokia's first shot via the ITC loophole has been a big failure, as the judge has ruled that Apple didn't infringe at all. It's worth noting that many consider the ITC to also have a lower bar, so this might not bode well for Nokia's lawsuit. Of course, Apple's lawsuit against Nokia remains as well... meaning that this little attack on Apple could conceivably end very, very badly for Nokia.

Probably should have focused on innovating, huh?

Filed Under: competition, innovation, itc, patents, smartphones
Companies: apple, nokia

Totally Pointless Lawsuit Accusing Mobile Carriers Of Being P2P File Sharers Dismissed; Plaintiffs Say They're Happy

from the um,-guys,-you-lost-big-time dept

Last summer, we wrote about an incredibly poorly thought out lawsuit, by a company named Luvdarts, developers of MMS content, suing the mobile operators, because MMS can be forwarded from a recipient to another person. The company claimed that the big mobile operators were no different than file sharing networks, like Limewire or Gnutella, because each forwarding of content was infringement. As we pointed out at the time, this made no sense. It was a silly argument that was really being put forth by a guy named Max Davis, who has an equally silly plan to add compulsory licensing to MMS content, and this lawsuit was an incredibly weak attempt to push the mobile operators into negotiating. Instead, as we predicted, it's been dismissed by the courts for failure to state a claim. The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning that the court doesn't want to see them again on this. The press release linked above is kind of amusing, because it has the folks behind the lawsuit claiming that they're happy about this result and planning to appeal. Guys, you just got laughed out of court, because this lawsuit makes no sense. Appealing isn't going to fix that.

Filed Under: file sharing, mms, royalties
Companies: at&t, luvdarts, sprint, t-mobile, verizon