Nokia claims Nexus 7 Android tablet guilty of patent infringement

Finnish phone maker lashes out at Asus and Google

Nokia has attacked Google and Asus claiming the recently unveiled Android Jelly Bean-powered Google Nexus 7 tablet infringes on a number of its patents.

The company accused Asus and Google of illegally using technology owned by Nokia in a statement sent to V3 on Monday.

"Nokia has more than 40 licensees, mainly for its standards-essential patent portfolio, including most of the mobile device manufacturers," a Nokia spokesman said.

"Neither Google nor Asus is licensed under our patent portfolio. Companies who are not yet licensed under our standard-essential patents should simply approach us and sign up for a licence."

The company did not clarify whether it has mounted formal legal action against Asus and Google, nor whether it would seek a sales ban against the Nexus 7.

If a sales ban were put in place it would cause a serious blow to Google, with Apple having just won a temporary injunction blocking the sale of the Galaxy Nexus in the US.

Asus declined to be drawn on on Nokia's accusation, telling V3: "At the moment, Asus will not be providing any response or comment."

At the time of publishing, Google had not responded to V3's request for comment.

The Nexus 7 tablet was unveiled by Google at its I/O event last week. The tablet is set to arrive in the UK from mid-July costing £159 for the 8GB and £199 for the 16GB model.

The unit boasts a 7in, HD 1280x800 touch-screen and is powered by an impressive 1.3 GHz quad-core processor with 1GB of RAM. It will be the first device ever released running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

The Nexus 7 will also include integrated NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, nine hours of video playback, Google's Chrome web browser and a 1.2MP front-facing camera.

For a more in-depth look at the Nexus 7, check out V3's hands-on review and video demo.