14 DAY TRIAL // A New-Zeland based company, Michael S Sutton, has filled a complaint against Finish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia in the US, claiming that it is infringing upon a data packaging technology patent.
The company is now, as usual, seeking damages. The complaint, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on April the 30th, states that the world's leading phone company has been using technology that was patented by Sutton in its messaging applications.
As a response to the complaint, Nokia has announced that it will be actively defending its rights in the case.
Moreover, according to Nokia : "This case was previously filed against Nokia and then voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff. We will analyze the details of the new case which was filed on 30 April, 2007 and actively defend the rights of Nokia," a spokeswoman said.
Nokia is currently involved in several other lawsuits aside from this one. Its conflict with Qualcomm, over a cross-licensing agreement, has been going on for quite some time, and the two companies have still not reached an agreement.
According to Nokia, a compensation must be paid for its patents that Qualcomm is using. The company claims that its royalty levels are fair, reasonable and discriminatory.
Qualcomm on the other hand believes that the fees are too high. From the way things are going, an agreement won't be reached any time soon and as technology evolves, more companies will end up in court disputing over patents.