If you thought that the patent wars were over, or at least subsided a bit, think again as Nokia is looking to reignite it. Yesterday we reported that the Finnish company had filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming patent infringement with regards to 32 patents. The lawsuit was initially filed in the US and Europe, but Nokia has since expanded it.According to the reports, Nokia has since expanded their lawsuit against Apple to parts of Asia and while the initial lawsuit covered 32 patents, the expansion has added an additional 8 patents, bringing the total number of patents allegedly infringed by Apple to 40. However clearly Apple isn’t taking this lying down as on Wednesday, the company filed a retaliatory suit.
Apple even goes as far as calling Nokia a “patent troll” and says that they are conspiring with companies such as Acacia and Conversant. According to Apple’s complaint, “These serial assertions and litigations have forced Apple to incur multiple millions of dollars in defense costs. Precisely the sort of leverage that Acacia and Conversant intended when they agreed to conspire with Nokia.”
Apple specifically calls out Acacia as the company has sued Apple 42 times in the past 10 years. We’re not sure how this will end, but it definitely looks like things are only just getting started. Let’s not forget that Apple’s lawsuit with Samsung has yet to be settled as the damages owed to Apple is still being debated.