Nokia has laid the ground for a ban on sales of BlackBerrys in the US, UK and Canada in a new wave of hostilities in the smartphone patent wars, which have also seen Sweden's Ericsson file a suit against Samsung over alleged patent abuse.
The Ericsson suit could have wide-ranging effects if its demand for a sales injunction against Samsung is granted by the US, because it would affect every Samsung device with phone capability. A newly confident Nokia, whose new handsets have topped Amazon's sales charts, is at loggerheads with the Canadian maker of BlackBerrys, Research In Motion (RIM) over "standards-essential" patents they have licensed to each other since 2003, which let phones connect to Wi-Fi networks.
A Nokia spokesperson told the Guardian: "Nokia and RIM agreed a cross-licence for standards-essential cellular patents in 2003, which was amended in 2008. In 2011, RIM sought arbitration, arguing that the licence extended beyond cellular essentials.
In November 2012, the arbitration tribunal ruled against RIM. It found that RIM was in breach of contract and is not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products without first agreeing royalties with Nokia. In order to enforce the Tribunal's ruling, we have now filed actions in the US, UK and Canada with the aim of ending RIM's breach of contract."
Nokia wants a California court to enforce an arbitration award preventing RIM from selling products with the disputed wireless capabilities until the firms can agree on royalties. RIM declined to comment. The company is preparing for the January launch of a new software platform designed to update its phones so that they can handle not just email but make full use of the wider web and the millions of apps produced for today's smartphones.
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