Nokia unleashes 45 patent claims against RIM, HTC and Viewsonic

Ailing mobile giant resorts to patent courts to recoup cash

Nokia has filed lawsuits against Research in Motion (RIM), HTC and Viewsonic over alleged patent infringements, in a move that appears designed to help the firm attempt to recoup cash after suffering huge losses in recent months.

The move adds Nokia to the long list of major technology firms embroiled in legal disputes across the world and comes after the firm won a settlement of some €420m from Apple in a lawsuit last year.

"Though we'd prefer to avoid litigation, Nokia had to file these actions to end the unauthorised use of our proprietary innovations and technologies, which have not been widely licensed," said Louise Pentland, Nokia's chief legal officer.

"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 unauthorised use of our inventions."

Nokia accused its rivals of infringing patents relating to dual-function antennas, power management and a number of application store related features, including data encryption.

Nokia has filed complaints to the US International Trade Commission against HTC; suits against HTC and Viewsonic in Delaware courts; against HTC and RIM in the Regional Court in Dusseldorf; and against all three rivals in the Regional Courts in Mannheim and Munich.

RIM declined to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by V3 while HTC said it was awaiting official legal notification of the lawsuit.

"HTC has been a licensee of Nokia on wireless essential patents since 2003. We are waiting to receive a complaint and won't have any comments until our legal team has received and reviewed it."

Viewsonic had not responded at the time of publication.

In separate news, Nokia confirmed that its 808 PureView handset, which features a 41-megapixel camera, will start shipping later this month.

The 808 PureView, which was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, grabbed the spotlight thanks to its innovative imaging technology.

Nokia has developed a super-high resolution image sensor combined with finely-tuned image algorithms to bring unparalleled details to phone cameras.