Corporate legal teams are so large, so powerful, and often so evenly-matched that when you combine them with the glacial wheels of justice, patent disputes can take years to resolve -- in fact, wed say its the rule rather than the exception -- and inevitably, they end in anticlimactic fashion with the alleged offender agreeing to shell out some fraction of the plaintiffs original request in exchange for sweeping the whole matter under the rug. Nokias had its fair share of such spats, and one thats been dogging the company for a good long while now is with InterDigital, which has been systematically targeting firms in the industry for years with claims that it holds patents inherently required for UMTS -- in other words, if you make UMTS gear, you automatically owe InterDigital money. Of course, Nokia has been politely disagreeing with that claim all along, and the US International Trade Commission has just issued an initial determination in its favor, saying that it doesnt violate the four patents InterDigitals all worked up over. For the record, the US ITC has been investigating this issue for a solid two years now, so yeah, if someones ripping off your IP, dont expect a speedy resolution. The commissions initial determination will be followed by a final, binding determination this December; in the meantime; Espoo "will continue to present its case." Now that we think about it, were pretty sure we saw this episode of Law & Order already.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Nokia / InterDigital patent drama continues with ITC ruling in Espoos favor
Corporate legal teams are so large, so powerful, and often so evenly-matched that when you combine them with the glacial wheels of justice, patent disputes can take years to resolve -- in fact, wed say its the rule rather than the exception -- and inevitably, they end in anticlimactic fashion with the alleged offender agreeing to shell out some fraction of the plaintiffs original request in exchange for sweeping the whole matter under the rug. Nokias had its fair share of such spats, and one thats been dogging the company for a good long while now is with InterDigital, which has been systematically targeting firms in the industry for years with claims that it holds patents inherently required for UMTS -- in other words, if you make UMTS gear, you automatically owe InterDigital money. Of course, Nokia has been politely disagreeing with that claim all along, and the US International Trade Commission has just issued an initial determination in its favor, saying that it doesnt violate the four patents InterDigitals all worked up over. For the record, the US ITC has been investigating this issue for a solid two years now, so yeah, if someones ripping off your IP, dont expect a speedy resolution. The commissions initial determination will be followed by a final, binding determination this December; in the meantime; Espoo "will continue to present its case." Now that we think about it, were pretty sure we saw this episode of Law & Order already.
