Nokia expands litigation against Apple to 9 more countries

Nokia said Thursday it has increased the number of patent suits launched against Apple from 32 to 40, spread across 11 countries in US, parts of Asia and Europe.

The move comes a day after Nokia revealing it was suing Apple for a number of patent infringements in the US and Germany, covering display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets, video coding and other technologies used in devices such as the iPhone.

On Wednesday, Nokia filed lawsuits in three German courts and two lawsuits in a US court in Texas.

Nokia claimed Apple agreed to license some of its patents in 2011, but declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license others of its technologies used by 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,” said Ilkka Rahnasto, head of patent business at Nokia.

Nokia’s move comes a day after Apple filed on Tuesday an antitrust lawsuit against Acacia Research Corp and Conversant Intellectual Property Management, accusing them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly from Apple.

The lawsuits now extend to Finland (3 patents), UK (3 patents), Italy (4 patents), Sweden (3 patents), Spain (1 patent), The Netherlands (3 patents), France (1 patent), Hong Kong (1 patent) and Japan (2 patents), Nokia revealed on Thursday.

In addition, Nokia has filed a complaint against Apple with the US International Trade Commission, which has the power to block the importation of products to the US if they are found to infringe patents. The USITC complaint covers eight patents.