BREAKING...Now Microsoft is suing Apple
Firm In Patent Deal With Microsoft Sues Apple
Last update: 3/5/2012 4:08:53 PM
By John Letzing Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--A subsidiary of a firm that shares patent licensing revenue with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has sued Apple Inc. (APPL) for infringement, adding another wrinkle to the ongoing intellectual property wars among technology giants. Luxembourg-based Core Wireless Licensing S.a.r.l. filed a complaint in a Texas court last week alleging Apple has infringed on eight of its patents related to wireless communications, in multiple versions of Apple's iPhone and iPad.
Core Wireless requests unspecified damages and future royalty payments "on each and every product sold by Apple in the future that is found to infringe," as well as for those future Apple products "which are not colorably different" from those found to infringe.
The move comes as Apple and many of its rivals have squared off in courts in the U.S. and Europe, trading patent infringement charges associated with mobile devices.
Last September, Canada's Mosaid Technologies Inc. said it had purchased Core Wireless and its roughly 2,000 patents and patent applications for wireless technology originally filed by Nokia Corp. (NOK, NOK1V.HE).
Microsoft had earlier in the year obtained a patent cross-licensing deal with Nokia, as the two firms work to develop phones with Microsoft's operating system software.
In a prior statement, Mosaid has said Core Wireless was entitled to roughly one-third of licensing royalties from the patents, while the remaining two-thirds would be paid to Nokia and Microsoft.
Microsoft acknowledged in a statement Monday that it paid for a license to the Mosaid patents obtained from Nokia last year, granting the Redmond, Wash., firm a "passive financial interest in future revenue generated by Mosaid from the licensing of those patents to others."
A Nokia spokesman said the company has divested the patents involved in the litigation, and declined further comment.
An Apple representative declined to comment. Michael Salter, a spokesman for Mosaid, also declined to comment.
In its complaint Core Wireless says Apple is infringing on its patents with iPhone models ranging from the 3G to the 4S, and both the iPad and iPad 2.
Apple said in January it sold more than 37 million iPhones in the quarter ended in December, and more than 15 million iPads.
According to data from Gartner, Apple held a nearly 24% share of the worldwide smartphone software market in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to 1.9% held by Microsoft.
Microsoft, Apple, Nokia and others including Google Inc. (GOOG) have been engaged in a simmering legal
battle over intellectual property rights, as they jockey for position in the mobile phone market.
-By John Letzing, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-8230; john.letzing@dowjones.com
--Ian Sherr contributed to this article.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 05, 2012 16:08 ET (21:08 GMT) |
