Nokia's new lawsuit against Apple, filed in the U.S. Federal court of the Western District of Wisconsin on Friday, takes aim at the iPhone and iPad 3G for allegedly infringing upon five Nokia patents. This is just the latest dispute in an increasingly litigious smartphone market.
If all the name calling and legal barbs that have been flying around have your head spinning, here's a quick guide to sort things out:
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Nokia vs. Apple/Apple vs. Nokia
Nokia's latest filing against Apple, made in May, charges Apple with infringing upon patents related to speech enhancement and data transmission technologies. The infringement, according to Nokia, involves techniques for data positioning in apps as well as antenna setups used to conserve space in compact handhelds.
Nokia really got the action started in October by filing a suit against Apple in federal court alleging tht the iPhone infringes on 10 of Nokia's patents related to technologies such as GSM, UMTS, and wireless LANs.
Apple fired back in December, accusing Nokia of allegedly infringing on 13 of its patents and pointedly told Nokia that "other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours." Apple also accused Nokia of antitrust violations and deceptive practices in terms of revealing its intellectual property rights. Apple is also seeking a ban on U.S. imports of Nokia gear.
The U.S. International Trade Commission is also investigating each company's claims against the other. A U.S. judge has put the earlier suits on hold while the ITC does its work.
Family of author Philip K. Dick vs. Google
Author Philip K. Dick's estate said in January it would sue Google for allegedly swiping the names "Android" and "Nexus One" from Dick's 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" -- which later morphed into the movie Blade Runner. "Google takes first and then deals with the fallout later," Dick's daughter Isa is quoted as saying in The Telegraph.
Google, which denies infringing on the Dick family's intellectual property introduced its Android-based Nexus One phone at CES in January.
