Nokia: HTC, RIM and ViewSonic Committed Patent Infringement

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Nokia: HTC, RIM and ViewSonic Committed Patent Infringement

According to John Paczkowski of All Things D, Nokia filed patent infringement lawsuits on Wednesday against HTC Corp (TPE:2498), Research in Motion and View Sonic in the US and Germany.  According to  Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK), there are 45 patents which are the main focus in the lawsuit which range from dual-function antennas to data encryption.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK)’s Chief Legal Officer, Louise Pentland released this statement this morning: “Many of these inventions are fundamental to Nokia products”…“We’d rather that other companies respect our intellectual property and compete using their own innovations, but as these actions show, we will not tolerate the unauthorized use of our inventions.”

This is a huge deal for Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) as they begin to rise from the ashes and become a driving force in the mobile phone industry once again.  Nokia has been cutting costs and teaming up with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to create a Windows Phone which is to help fight the Google’s Android and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone.  Don’t get me wrong, Nokia has a long way to go before they are a fighting force but they are certainly on the way and showing signs of strength.

Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ:RIMM) (TSE:RIM) continues to face setbacks as margins shrink and its new Blackberries fail to impress.  Now the company is going all out, putting all their eggs into the Blackberry 10 basket.  If it’s as good as the company’s management says, then it will be a winner.  But don’t get too excited because they said the same sort of thing for the last couple of Blackberries which were flops.

Right now, the mobile phone industry is too busy suing each other over patent infringements and not focusing on what could be the next big product.  Samsung and Apple are constantly in court together battling out patents and what not.  Now we have Nokia suing RIM,  HTC Corp (TPE:2498) and ViewSonic.  It will be interesting to see whether the judge rules in Nokia’s favor or against because this could be huge for Nokia if they win.

The bottom line is that Nokia is beginning to show signs of strength and I am confident that they will once again rise as a powerhouse, not in the US per say but internationally I am confident.  They were once a great brand overseas but failed to adapt to the changing smartphone market which cost them dearly.  However, I think their partnership with Microsoft will help them grow to new heights as they look to appeal to new customers.

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