Nokia jumps into worldwide patent brawl.
The Finnish handset maker has targeted HTC, Blackberry-maker RIM and Viewsonic for failing to pay licensing fees for use of its intellectual property. The firm said that the cases involved more than 45 separate patents relating to power management, application stores, navigation and data encryption.
"We have already licensed our standards essential patents to more than 40 companies," said Louise Pentland, Nokia's chief legal officer. "We'd rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations but, as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorised use of our inventions."
Nokia has previously had success in forcing Apple to pay to license its technology, but it has stayed relatively quiet as other smartphone makers have torn into each other in court rooms around the world.
Nokia's latest lawsuits were filed in the US Federal District Court of Delaware, the US International Trade Commission and Germany's Regional Court in Dusseldorf.
"We have already licensed our standards essential patents to more than 40 companies," said Louise Pentland, Nokia's chief legal officer. "We'd rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations but, as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorised use of our inventions."
Nokia has previously had success in forcing Apple to pay to license its technology, but it has stayed relatively quiet as other smartphone makers have torn into each other in court rooms around the world.
Nokia's latest lawsuits were filed in the US Federal District Court of Delaware, the US International Trade Commission and Germany's Regional Court in Dusseldorf.
