Nokia has filed a compaint against Apple for infringing on its GSM, UMTS, and WiFi “standards,” which is as absolutely vague as it sounds. While Nokia states that forty vendors have licensed its patents in these areas there is no mention of the specific instances of infringement and, given that GSM, UMTS, and WiFi are the defacto standards for GSM-based phones across the board it’s hard to tell what Nokia’s real problem is here.
Nokia, for example, has a few thousand patents dealing with UMTS alone while this one, #7,599,665, seems to deal specfically with radio hand-off between GSM/EDGE, UMTS, and WiFi.
The invention relates to a method for selecting radio resources for a communication session in a wireless communication terminal. In order to facilitate the selection of quality of service between diversified terminals, terminal capabilities are described by a set of capability parameters, the set including at least one parameter indicative of the terminal’s capabilities. Based on the set of capability parameters, a dedicated quality class set is defined for an application instance residing in the terminal, the quality class set including at least one quality class for the application instance. When a session is to be established between at least two application instances residing respectively in at least two terminals, at least one quality class is negotiated for the session, the at least one quality class being determined based on the dedicated quality class sets of the at least two application instances. Based on the negotiation, radio resources are then allocated for the session.
For the record, UMTS is essentially 3G networking. The lawsuit press release can be found here
Nokia has been struggling to gain traction in the high-end phone market now that we live in an iPhone world and this may be a last ditch effort to derail futre models or, assuming they’re going for a bit more mercenary approach, cash in on some of the iPhone’s success. Our in-house guy with a law degree/MobileCrunch intern Jeremy is on the case.
Nitwit:
Unlike traditional litigation, Patent litigation complaints are deliberately nonspecific.
You allege specificity down the road. Not in the complaint.
Twit.
In 2009 lawyers became the PR/SEO firm for major corporations. A great way to get media attention without paying for it really.
SEO’s love the backlinks that come with these articles. Apple.com and Nokia.com both got links from this article.
How many more will they get?
I have a feeling that this will go Nokias way. :3
Only if they filed it in that one Texas court i4i used against MS Word.
Jesus, Biggs, even by your low standards this article’s appalling.
“Nokia has been struggling to gain traction in the high-end phone market now that we live in an iPhone world”
Is that why their smartphones outsell the iPhone an overage by a factor of three in the markets they both compete in?
I’ll give you one thing – Nokia are struggling at the absolute top end of smartphones because they don’t currently have anything that competes with the iPhone. That said, they’re doing pretty well in mid-tier.
Of course this could possibly – and bear with me on this on John – just be because maybe, just maybe, Apple actually did use their patents ideas without paying for them?
Anyway it’ll give the Apple lawyers something to do other than suing department stores whose emblems have a superficial resemblance to theirs.
Problem with Nokia is that they are selling 400 million devices a year but still LOSING MONEY. They lost hundreds of millions in the last quarter. It really doesn’t matter if they outsell everyone including Apple. They are hemorrhaging serious cash and they seem totally unfocused with various OSes, app/music store fiascos and a deal with the devil, Microsoft.
The problem with your post is that you didn’t look at the results.
The handset division made a profit of 785 Million Euros. The loss is due to a write off of over 1 billion Euros on Nokia Siemens Networks which has nothing to do with handsets.
Oh Jeez. Nokia’s phones are NOT losing money. They’ve always had a leg up against the competition when it comes to profitability.
Their recent losses have come from some appalling M&A action.
So much ignorance. People should get a clue or two before posting.
For Crunchgear, if you can’t extract benefits from them, then badmouth them.
If you can’t extract special benefits from them, then badmouth them.
Most of Nokia’s 400million sold phones are free throw-away phones given by the operators in order to entice new subscribers to sign up for a tariff/plan. Someone has to pay for them, so the operator does. Huge sales of huge # of throw-away phones does not automatically = huge sales or happy profits.
Sure, CHRIS, that 785 million Euro profit for one quarter in the handset division actually came from the tooth fairy.
Props to Mark A – his comments are better and more accurate than the article itself. LOL
Hey look! It’s a Nokia defender. Why even bother. You haven’t written anything of consequence and when you refer to smartphones in October 2009 its a top down look with the iPhone at the top.
You have to also be joking that the N95 or 97 are anywhere near a top of the line smartphone. Wow it can take video! Oohh it can make phone calls. OMG its got GPS! Boring.
Basically it a phone with a bunch of useless, lesser used features. Apple has set the bar immensely high. Even with the 1st Gen iPhone. No other company understands user experience better and for you (and now I) to waste time commenting all this has robbed both of time we could have spent with an iPhone.
Hey look! It’s an Apple fanboy. Why even bother.
According to you a phone is just a pretty user interface, what about all the technology to make a phone call, GSM, UTMS and other standards, hardware chips etc.
No, just give this guy a pretty user interface, the actual phone call will happen by magic…
@Josh
“You haven’t written anything of consequence”
Irony.
“Is that why their smartphones outsell the iPhone an overage by a factor of three in the markets they both compete in?”
No Mark, you are wrong, the facto is only 2.
16,3 millions of smartphone for Nokia
7,3 millions for Apple.
Only 2.
In only 2 years.
@Fred
In the markets they both compete in. Nokia don’t sell their smartphones through subsidised carriers in the US, Apple do not in China at the moment.
So if you compare the markets they compete in – which is what I said – it’s 3 to 1.
And even if we don’t yearly totally market share for all units is still on a ratio of 3:1.
This one is crap. Basically, it covers two wireless devices and a method that selects the best communications protocol to use between them. Haven’t modems and fax machines and WiFi devices been doing that forever??
Really, how can the patent office allow such a broad patent.
This is non-news. It will take years to litigate.
No it won’t or at least it shouldn’t. While the patents are broad, they are so because it will encapsulate anything developed thats even a bit similar. Welcome to the patent game. If you read Nokia’s press release, they claim that over 40 companies license the patent and I wouldn’t be surprised if every big phone company is in that list. Apple can’t just create a phone using technologies patented by other companies and not expect to pay. They sue the pants off every competitor to an Apple product, I say its time Apple pays up.
Talk about fanboys… If Nokia holds a patent that Apple is infringing on and has not licensed, why not sue them?
Why is this considered to be mercenary tactics? Why is it an effort to detail future models? If it is true, let Apple pay for the license.
Further, litigations like this are extremely lengthy and very costly. I am sure that Nokia did their homework and that their lawyers gave them their feelings about whether or not this can be won (or settled).
I personally hate patent lawsuits (and have very strong feelings about the patent system in the US having gone through many patent applications) but until the system is changed and patents like the ones in question are made into “eminent domain” like patents (public for the good of the public or too generic to be considered a patent), everyone has to play by the rules including Apple.
you may like the patent system or not… The rules are the same for everyone, even for the jesus phone.
Nokia spent a lot of money in R&D (all over the World, US included), protected its innovation using the existing rules, and now Apple feels so strong they refuse to pay for licensing Nokia’s patents.
That’s how it will go:
In a few month or a couple years, a US judge will tell to Apple: You are infringing Nokia’s patents xyz, you pay or I block the selling of your jesus phone (by that time it will include tablet etc.) on the US territory.
And Apple will give $1 billion to struggling Nokia.
You may like Apple/Nokia or hate them, rules are the rules, and the lawyers are the one who will make the most money from this patent war… As usual.
Best. Graphic. Ever.
Sad state of affairs, the reality of huge corporations being run people people with zero credibility, absolutely no sincere passion for what they do, drive solely by money, or worse, driven by the need to generate the perception of money being made like old timey snake oil salesman.
Nokia decision makers – read this, take it to heart …or just resign from your positions immediately:
http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/01/work-on-stuff-that-matters-fir.html
Huh? So, what you’re saying is that Nokia should just let other corporations steal things they spent time and money developing and retool their corporate culture based on some blog babble from a computer book publisher? Do I have that right?
Yet more Nokia Bashing on TechCrunch. Did you guys loose money on them or something?
The most shocking part of this article is that a lawyer is interning at crunchgear, lol. Guess the economy has taken a hit in all industries. :)
I recommend Biggs go work for Fox News if he wants to be so biased in his views.
Ever heard of payola? It doesn’t apply just to music industry.
There are so many unanswered questions like, did Nokia try to work it out with Apple before filing. If not this is all an effort to take some wind out of the iPhones sails. If this really is a ligit case, then Nokia can sue so many companies that they won’t need to make phones anymore, just take a cut off the top of all smartphones sales. If I had to put money on it I would say Nokia has nothing to offer and they won’t for a while and decided to try and buy time. They really should consider buying palm.
Apple vs. Nokia; Apple vs. MS, Google vs. rest of the world.. Star wars and soup opera…
Frankly – who cares? they will make up eventually anyway.. Everybody did.
Looking at just the actual smartphones, there’s no comparison. The iPhone is vastly greater than the N97.
Nokia is almost 3 years behind and is getting leapfrogged by everyone.
Except in sales.
Woops.
sensational titles again. is apple even comparable to nokia?
Since Apple is always quick to defend its intellectual property I am sure they understand Nokia’s concerns. Since both companies own tons of patents they will probably reach a cross licensing agreement. However shouldn’t Nokia go after the iPhone suppliers who are actually manufacturing the infringing technologies too.
If they are infringing no one is going to bother to defend Apple of all companies from patent lawsuits.
That’s more than clear that a big part of those U$34Bi Apple has in the bank is very well used to pay tech crunch and other similar sites to publish such kind of bad online marketing.
I think Nokia’s layers should also try to give an end on this online bloggers fanfare!!!
John Biggs is an Apple fanboy, so this article doesn’t surprise me.
Where is Michael Knight?
What is all this talk about “theft” and time and money on R&D for this idea. Doesn’t this boil down to the following?
1. If WiFi is available and connected, use it
2. Else, fall back to 3g
Go hire any two engineers, put them into a room, and ask them what they’d do with a device with multiple network interfaces, and I think they’d pretty much all arrive at the same idea in short order, having spent no more than a few hundred bucks of company time.
Software patents are ridiculous.
LOL. So that’s where Apple hefty profit margin comes from — by not paying licenses. Evil American thiefs!
The frog in a well thinks that the well is the whole universe.. It seems this is the case here :)
Apparently, “world” to techcrunch means “the U.S.”
Umm…arguing about phones? Talk about needing to get a life. Who the hello cares what company sold what? Buy the one you want and move on…it is just a phone.
When wireless was no more than twinkle in the eye of Silicon Valley Nokia was churning out unique IPR that led to the genesis of digital wireless communications. For those who don’t know or who have forgotten, when Motorola, America’s leading wireless company was stuck on analog, Europe was charging forward with the world’s first digital wireless standard, GSM, spearheaded by Nokia. Nokia’s leadership built perhaps the largest portfolio of digital wireless communications patents in the world. Nokia’s innovation in the early 90s allows us to enjoy the various wLAN, Bluetooth, wireless-WAN, etc. technologies today. Nokia IPR (and then as time progressed Qualcomm & the Japanese) has become the base of global standards that fueled the wireless communications revolution. Because the other pioneers in the market (read here: Qualcomm, Motorola, Ericcson, Cisco, etc.) also developed their own unique IPR to implement these standards everyone agreed to play nice, solve competing IPR problems, and cross-license for free in many cases. Apple was not part of this process. It orders its phones from a Taiwanese company that manufacturers in China using wireless modules designed by a fabless semiconductor company manufactured at the fab of an outsource partner. Why should these johnny-come-latelys enjoy the benefits of all the innovation of the incumbents who have driven the cost curve down over 15 years, not Apple. On a separate note, like other commentators I agree that this posting’s author is sloppy. He lacked basic knowledge of IPR cross-licensing and more importantly, he was too lazy to check with experts to find out. This reflects poorly on TechCrunch. From your postings we all understand you’ve decided to throw out objectivity and announce your biases. But, does this relieve your contributors of the basic journalistic responsibility of researching their topics before ‘going to press’?
Thank you. You and Mark A seem to be the only sensible people here.
Nokia mobile phones is the best! If they paid about the rights on this things. They are right!