Nokia files fresh suit in Apple patent fight

Nokia escalated its patent dispute with archrival Apple over smartphone technology on Tuesday, filing a complaint with the US International Trade Commission.

The complaint accuses Apple of infringing Nokia patents in “virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players and computers”, the Finnish company said.

The ITC, a quasi-judicial federal agency with broad investigative responsibilities on matters of trade, has become an increasingly popular venue for patent fights in recent years, though more commonly US companies take grievances there against competitors in other countries. The Washington-based agency can bar imports and impose other remedies and it often acts more quickly than general courts.

Nokia has won at least two battles at the ITC before. In late 2007, an ITC judge ruled it had not infringed patents held by US chipmaker Qualcomm relating to the control of signal power.

Nokia also had an ITC run-in in 2007 with Interdigital, which alleged that Nokia was infringing patents on third-generation wireless transmission. The ITC decided in favour of Nokia.

The new suit pcomes after Nokia’s October suit against Apple in the Delaware federal court. That case seeks royalties that could run into hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Apple declined to comment on Tuesday but it has countersued in Delaware, arguing that Nokia was trying to win access to unrelated computing patents, including touch-screen know-how, in exchange for giving Apple licences to use Nokia’s wireless patents.

Likewise, the new case concerns patents beyond wireless. The intellectual property in question relates to user interfaces, camera management and antenna design, which Apple uses in various products.

Additional reporting by Chris Nuttall in San Francisco