In the last week, Nokia had sued Apple for patent infringement in the U.S. and Germany. Following it, Apple has discontinued the sales of products from Withings, a company owned by Nokia.
Withings, a France based company known for making various health devices such as Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor, Activite fitness tracker, digital thermometer, and more was acquired by Nokia on April 26 this year. Withings’ products that were available for purchase on Apple Store is now no longer available because of the ongoing legal dispute over patent infringement and antitrust issues with Nokia.
Apple vs Nokia – Patent Battle History
In 2009, Nokia had sued the Cupertino company for infringing its patents. In 2011, both the companies mutually decided to use the patents until December this year.
Nokia once again started accusing Apple on patent infringements after Apple filed an antitrust suit. It stated that it filed a lawsuit again because Apple failed to reach the expectations of the licensing agreement.
Related: Nokia to Launch A Mysterious Smartphone With Powerful Specs in China?
According to Apple’s suit, Nokia and its partnering agencies that filed patent infringements are trying to extort exorbitant money in the form of excessive royalty fees. It has said that the Finnish firm is acting like a patent troll and it by filing an antitrust lawsuit against it, it is only ‘defending inventors everywhere.’
Nokia’s suit that spans across 11 countries accuse Apple of infringing 40 of its patents dating back to the first iPhone from 2007. The lawsuit covers various patents related to cover displays, UI, software, video coding and chipsets.
(Source)
