Nokia announced on June 11th it has filed patent counter assertions against Qualcomm in the Eastern District of Texas Court. The filing relates to Qualcomm's unauthorized use of 6 Nokia implementation patents in its MediaFLO and BREW businesses. Qualcomm has in previous litigation sought injunctions against Nokia and therefore in this case Nokia is seeking both damages and injunctive relief.
"Nokia has a strong history of innovation in IP broadcast television and mobile download environments predating Qualcomm's activities," said Tero Ojanperä, chief technology officer, Nokia. "This is another example where Qualcomm has effectively copied Nokia's innovations. We believe that, for MediaFLO to evolve and for BREW to remain viable, Qualcomm needs access to these and many other patented Nokia inventions."
Nokia patents are at the core of MediaFLO and BREW technologies, for example in ensuring the broadcast quality of service within MediaFLO and in enabling the download of applications with BREW. Nokia has also recently declared another set of patents to the Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) as essential for the FLO air interface used in MediaFLO.
Nokia has built one of the strongest and broadest IPR portfolios in the wireless industry over the last 15 years through extensive investments in research and development. Nokia will continue to vigorously defend itself against the infringement and unauthorized use of its intellectual property.
Nokia's patent counter assertions are part of its response to the Qualcomm lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Texas, on 2 April, 2007. In that lawsuit Qualcomm's three patents-in-suit allegedly involve certain types of mobile software download and execution environments. Nokia is confident that the Qualcomm patents are invalid, for example, based on the alleged inventions having been patented or published by other companies, including Nokia, before Qualcomm. In addition, Nokia believes its products do not infringe any of the patents. -Nokia
