14 DAY TRIAL //
Apple and Nokia are engaging in a patent war once again, and now Cupertino has decided to pull all products owned by the Finish company from its stores until the legal dispute comes to an end.
As a result, customers can no longer purchase Withings products from the Apple Store. Withings is a company that Nokia purchased earlier this year and which offers a number of premium devices, including smart devices like thermometers and scales, all of which connect to iPhones.
It’s not clear if Apple actually intends to re-list these products in its stores anytime soon, but this is highly unlikely given the fact that the company is involved in a huge patent dispute with Nokia.
As MacRumors notes, apps developed by Withings are still available in the App Store, and there’s only a small chance to see them go, but customers of Withings products are recommended to download them anyway as soon as possible just to be sure.
The patent lawsuit
Nokia has sued Apple in the United States and in Germany, claiming that the company violates some of its patents covering technologies used on products sold in these markets. Nokia said it has been working with Apple since 2011 to address any patent violations, but more recently, the company has refused to pay for using technologies that are patented by Nokia.
“Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products,” Nokia said.
“Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today's mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple's use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights,” Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia, said.
An official statement from Apple on its decision to pull Withings products from stores is not yet available, but unfortunately, this dispute with Nokia has us, the customers, becoming collateral victims.