Nokia is aiming to stop the Lenovo Takeover in Germany
The Swedish Phone company claims copyrights violations related to a video codec.
Nokia Oyj (NYSE: NOK) has requested an injunction to block the sale of Lenovo in Germany over patent licenses. Last year, the Finnish company initiated a lawsuit against the PC manufacturer for infringement of its video coding patent.
On September 30th, a Munich court ruled that Lenovo had infringed Nokia's patents and ordered a ban on products using Nokia's video compression technology. Nokia is now trying to enforce the injunction that affects Lenovo laptops, tablets and PCs. Nokia had sued Lenovo for an unpaid license to use patents related to the H.264 video codec. In a statement, Nokia said legal recourse is not a preferred alternative, but Lenovo has refused to enter into negotiations over the patent infringement. And this although it is clear that the PC manufacturer has illegally used Nokia's patented technology.
The company said it was open to negotiating out of court to resolve the matter with Lenovo. Nokia opened a lawsuit against the company last year for infringing 20 of its patents. The company also has other lawsuits in Brazil, India, and the United States against Lenovo, and another six in Germany. The US International Trade Commission is currently investigating a complaint from Nokia to block Lenovo's imports. Nokia's strategy is to collect royalties from retail product manufacturers rather than individual component manufacturers. Interestingly, even the automotive sector is a target of Daimler AG in a legal dispute with the company.
However, Lenovo has appealed the Munich ruling, stating that Nokia has refused to license its intellectual property on non-discriminatory and fair terms, often referred to as FRAND terms. Lenovo claims that the former phone maker was unwilling to license the technology to it or its third party vendors who need the technology. In a statement, Lenovo said standardizing technology on FRAND terms is important to the future of the technology industry worldwide and to the growth of affordable innovation for customers. However, the Finnish company's licensing practices endanger this access.