诺基亚-苹果专利战升温，未来几月将诉讼不断

法官驳回其稍早的投诉刚到一周，诺基亚再度把智能手机竞争对手苹果告上了美国国际贸易委员会(ITC)，指控苹果侵犯了它的另外七项专利。 在最新起诉中，诺基亚称苹果侵犯了与手机、便携音乐播放器、平板电脑和个人电脑相关的专利。这些实际上是苹果生产的全部产品。苹果否认侵权，并反诉诺基亚。 “在ITC提出的第二次投诉，坚持诺基亚稍早向ITC投诉的主张。ITC于周五(3月25日)宣布对诺基亚的稍早投诉作出判决。诺基亚不同意ITC关于未违反第337条款的初步裁定，并将在看到这次裁决的完整细节后，再决定下一步动作，”诺基亚在声明中表示。 “除了向ITC提出的这两次投诉，诺基亚还在美国特拉华州就同样的专利权提出诉讼，并在德国曼海姆、杜塞尔多夫和联邦专利法院，伦敦的英国最高法院和荷兰海牙地方法院提起诉讼，其中几个将在数月内进行审理，”诺基亚表示。 随着竞争加剧，电信设备与个人计算产业去年发生多起专利侵权诉讼和反诉，尤其是在智能手机和平板电脑领域，厂商都在积极争夺领先地位。由于苹果在这两个领域占优势，自然成为众矢之的，现在告它侵犯专利的厂商不仅有诺基亚，还有其美国同业摩托罗拉。 去年10月，摩托罗拉分别提起三个侵权诉讼，指控苹果侵犯了大约18项专利，涉及多种应用。摩托罗拉也向ITC投诉，“指控苹果的iPhone、iPad、iTouch和某些Mac电脑侵犯了摩托罗拉专利。”摩托罗拉还请求伊利诺斯州北区法院和佛罗里达南区法院就其投诉做出裁决。 在10月份的诉讼提出后大约两周，摩托罗拉与诺基亚签署了一份交叉授权协议，覆盖其3G移动产品，包括LTE、WiMax和LTE-Advanced技术。这两家公司都不太可能在近期内与苹果签署类似的协议。诺基亚早在10年前就对苹果提起了诉讼。 “我们的最新ITC投诉，意味着我们现在起诉苹果侵犯了诺基亚的46项专利，许多侵权诉讼10多年前就提出来了，当时苹果还没有推出其第一款iPhone，”诺基亚负责知识产权的副总裁Paul Melin表示，“在生产杰出移动产品所需的技术方面，诺基亚是领先的创新者，苹果必须停止使用诺基亚的自主创新来生产其产品。” 最近这次诺基亚与苹果之间的专利纠纷，是ITC收到的众多投诉之一。摄影设备生产商柯达曾对苹果和智能手机生产商Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM)提起诉讼，希望能从这两家公司身上获得10亿美元的专利使用费。ITC上周同意针对柯达的诉讼展开调查。ITC的一名法官最初曾驳回这起针对苹果与RIM的诉讼。 苹果也曾在美国一家联邦法院控告摩托罗拉。苹果指控，摩托罗拉的几款智能手机侵犯了它的六项专利。苹果在2010年初的时候还提起了另外一项诉讼，指控诺基亚侵犯其13项专利。这些诉讼都还没有得到解决。 我认为，最可能的结果是，这些公司之间的专利战还将持续几年，直到他们面临ITC或法院可能做出不利判决的前景。届时各方将不得不签订广泛的交叉授权协议。 本文授权编译自EBN，版权所有，谢绝转载！

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参考原文：Nokia-Apple Patent War Heats Up，by Bolaji Ojo {pagination} Nokia-Apple Patent War Heats Up Bolaji Ojo Barely a week after a judge rejected its earlier complaint, Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has again hauled smartphone rival Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) before the US International Trade Commission (ITC), alleging that the American company has violated another seven of its patents. In the new complaint, Nokia said Apple is infringing on patents related to mobile phones, portable music players, tablets, and personal computers -- virtually all products manufactured by the California-based company, which has rejected the allegations, and has in turn filed counterclaims against Nokia. "This second ITC complaint follows the initial determination in Nokia's earlier ITC filing, announced by the ITC on Friday, March 25. Nokia does not agree with the ITC's initial determination that there was no violation of Section 337 in that complaint and is waiting to see the full details of the ruling before deciding on the next steps in that case," Nokia said in a statement. "In addition to the two ITC complaints, Nokia has filed cases on the same patents and others in Delaware, US and has further cases proceeding in Mannheim, Dusseldorf and the Federal Patent Court in Germany, the UK High Court in London and the District Court of the Hague in the Netherlands, some of which will come to trial in the next few months," the company added. The telecommunication equipment and personal computing industry has seen numerous cases of patent violation allegations and counter-allegations over the course of the last year as competition heated up, especially in the smartphones and tablet PC sector where manufacturers are jostling for leadership. With Apple dominating in the two segments, the company has been a bigger target for rivals and is now facing complaints over patent infringement from not only Nokia but also fellow American OEM Motorola Mobility Inc. (NYSE: MMI). In October, Motorola filed three separate infringement lawsuits alleging Apple violated about 18 patents covering a wide range of applications. The company also filed a complaint with the ITC "alleging that Apple's iPhone, iPad, iTouch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola patents." Motorola also asked a court in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida to rule on its complaints. About two weeks after the filing of that October complaint, Motorola and Nokia signed a cross-licensing agreement to cover their 3G cellular products, including LTE, WiMax, and LTE-Advanced technologies. It's unlikely either company would be striking a similar agreement with Apple in the near future. Nokia's complaints against Apple go back 10 years. "Our latest ITC filing means we now have 46 Nokia patents in suit against Apple, many filed more than 10 years before Apple made its first iPhone," said Paul Melin, vice president of intellectual property at Nokia. "Nokia is a leading innovator in technologies needed to build great mobile products and Apple must stop building its products using Nokia's proprietary innovation." The latest Nokia-Apple patent spat is one of numerous complaints before the ITC. Photography equipment maker Eastman Kodak Co. has filed complaints against Apple and smartphone maker Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; Toronto: RIM) in the hopes it could seek royalties worth about $1 billion from the two companies. The ITC last week agreed to open investigations into Kodak's complaint. A judge with the ITC had initially dismissed the complaint against Apple and RIM. Apple itself has filed complaints against Motorola in a US Federal court. Apple's lawsuit alleged violations of six patents used by Motorola in several of its smartphones. This is in addition to a separate complaint, filed at the beginning of 2010, in which Apple alleged Nokia was in violation of 13 of its patents. None of the lawsuits has yet been resolved. What's most likely to happen, in my opinion, is that all these companies will keep firing off patent violation allegations for several more years until they're faced with the prospect of an unfavorable ITC or court ruling. That would force the parties into a broad cross-licensing agreement.