Apple filed a countersuit against Nokia, claiming Nokia is infringing on 13 of its patents. The action comes a little less than two months after Nokia sued Apple, claiming its iPhone infringes on 10 Nokia patents. Apple's countersuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware, denies Apple has been infringing on Nokia's patents.
Apple laid out in fiery rhetoric--and in no uncertain terms--its position on the matter. "Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours," Bruce Sewell, Apple's general counsel, said in a statement. Apple is looking to have Nokia's complaint dismissed.
In its counterclaim, Apple said the iPhone caused a "revolutionary" change in the mobile industry. In contrast, the filing said, Nokia "made a different business decision and remained focused on traditional mobile wireless handsets with conventional user interfaces."
"As a result, Nokia has rapidly lost share in the market for high-end mobile phones. Nokia has admitted that, as a result of the iPhone launch, 'the market changed suddenly and [Nokia was] not fast enough changing with it,'" according to Apple's filing. "In response, Nokia chose to copy the iPhone, especially its enormously popular and patented design and user interface."
When Nokia sued Apple in October, the company argued Apple was "attempting to get a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation" since Apple refused to agree to "appropriate" terms for licensing Nokia's intellectual property.
A Nokia representative said that the company was aware that Apple had responded to its suit, and that it was studying Apple's filing and would "respond in due course."
For more:
- see this All Things D blog post with the text of the complaint
- see this Reuters article
Related Articles:
Report: Apple passes Nokia in handset profitability
Nokia sues Apple over iPhone patent infringement
Nokia shocks market, posts $834M loss
Report: Apple accounts for 32% of handset industry profits