Nokia Sues HTC, RIM and Viewsonic 146
angry tapir writes "Nokia has filed claims in the U.S. and Germany saying that products from HTC, Research In Motion (RIM) and ViewSonic infringe a number of the company's patents. Nokia has filed actions against all three companies in Mannheim's and Munich's respective regional courts. Nokia has also filed complaints against HTC before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the Federal District Court of Delaware and the regional court in Düsseldorf. RIM will also have to dispatch its lawyers to Düsseldorf for a Nokia lawsuit filed there, while ViewSonic's legal team have to defend the company against a suit in Delaware."
Confirmation (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know what has gone on behind the scenes to get Microsoft and Apple to luv each other, but it seems like there is no rational reason for Nokia to leave Apple out of the fun except that they have been commanded to do so by Microsoft.
So Apple & Microsoft, what is your plan for the post-Android world you are trying to create?
Re:This is getting out of control... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:This is getting out of control... (Score:5, Interesting)
... the business of companies taking each other to court over patents is becoming the norm ...
As I've said in one of my previous comments --- this patent litigation thing is a boon to the legal community, and it has made a lot of lawyers very very rich.
These very very wealthy lawyers will see to it that the broken patent system stays broken, and they will do everything to encourage corporations to sue each others to crisp over patents/copyrights --- and all the while they (the lawyers) are raking in truckloads and truckloads of moolah
Maybe we can learn from an Ancient Chinese legend ---
An egret tried to eat a big clam and that clam clammed up the beak of the egret in return.
As both were fighting each others a fisherman bagged both the egret and the big clam as the result.
You've got up and down mixed up (Score:4, Interesting)
It was only a week or two ago when it was announced that Nokia are no longer the number one seller of handsets on earth. It's going down at an accelerating rate and not up.
Nokia is very much alive (notice the bit above where I mentioned it was the number one seller of handsets) despite a lot of internal effort to kill it. The core problem is currently Elop, there are other problems but he's putting in no effort to fix them and busy getting rid of anyone that can. Even then it will take a long time to kill Nokia even if it's a deliberate effort.
nokia may have a case (Score:3, Interesting)
Nokia is an old time innnovator and a big player in the industry. No way can they be called a patent troll. Conversely HTC, viewsonic have a bussiness model of fast followers and copying, respectively. Viewsonic is not an innovator just a cheapenator. they rarely even make their own stuff. HTC simply adds fashion to existing tech. I can't really say much about rimm. They definitely innovated in the field but they are desperately trying to catch up hardware wise. So it depends what the patents are.
I have little doubt they have a case since they had a case against apple on basic ideas in how to conduct cell phone operations. Apple settled or at least cross licencenced.
Finally this is obviously not an attempt to black mail these companies. Their market share is miniscule. Instead, Nokia needs cash flow so they are going after places they know they can win but ignored when they had bigger fish to fry.
Re:This is getting out of control... (Score:5, Interesting)
I saw a woodcutting that summed it up nicely. It showed two farmers fighting over a cow while a lawyer was milking it.
Re:This is Stephen Elop, I'll be your pilot today. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hah, I think there's a better airplane analogy: the pilot is trying to control a stalled airplane, while ignorant onlookers are judging his skill by what altitude and the rate of descent the plane has at the moment.
See, just before the wings stalled, the airplane was gaining altitude. People ignorant about flight dynamics may think this means everything was going OK, but the engine thrust was set too low for that angle of attack and the plane was dangerously losing speed. When the stall warning sounded in the cockpit, the captain woke up from his nap and took control from the dumbass co-pilot, but too late: the plane started to plunge uncontrollably. The captain promptly put the stick down (see, he's trying to kill everyone on board!) and increased engine thrust. In the recent minute, the plane has lost another 1000 feet of altitude and still descends; the recovery is uncertain. And it's all captain's fault, because the fall happened while he was in control!
The thing about financial analysts is, they know jack shit about any specific market, especially so in technologically-intensive areas, so all they are left with to make their crystal ball projections are pure financial data. These tell nothing about where things are going, whether the company is gaining or losing mindshare among consumers and developers. In 1997, the financial press spelled doom for Apple and their stock was tumbling below $3.
Re:Not News (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes this is MS having a hissy along with Nokia because they backed a loooooooooooooooossser now they are both doing an apple and having a childs hissy fit someone give them a good slap on the back of the legs that will calm them down please ..
The comparison to Apple isn't entirely fair. Apple didn't back a loser, they backed a winner but are having a child's hissy fit anyway because other people backed winners too and that's not fair and they should be the only ones to get anything and they're going to scream and scream until they get their way. In comparison Microsoft and Nokia sulking over losingis relatively mature.