BERLIN, Dec. 17: In the latest salvo of a protracted legal battle, Nokia sued Apple on Thursday in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, alleging that the US technology company used 13 of its patents, including a basic touch-screen maneuver, without its permission.
The lawsuits filed by Nokia are the most recent demands for royalty payments from its archrival Apple, the computer and device maker based in Cupertino, California, which entered the mobile phone business in 2007 with the iPhone, a device that redefined the smartphone.
“The Nokia inventions protected by these patents include several which enable compelling user experiences,” said Paul Melin, a Nokia vice president in charge of intellectual property.
Two of the patents that Nokia is claiming are the familiar finger “wiping gesture” used to navigate content on a cellphone touch screen, and the technology that enables access to the real-time services of an applications store.
Mr Melin said Nokia had filed patents protecting both technologies more than 10 years ago. Nokia said it sued Apple in the High Court in London, district courts in Düsseldorf and Mannheim, Germany, and district court in The Hague.
The suits claim that Apple is improperly using Nokia technologies in the iPhone, iPad and iPod devices.
An Apple spokesman in Europe, Mr Alan Hely, did not immediately respond to e-mail and phone messages. requesting comment on the Nokia lawsuits
The iPhone’s success over the past three years has come at the expense of Nokia, which still has the largest share of the global cellphone market. But it has struggled to develop a smartphone lineup that can compete for consumer attention and slow iPhone’s sales juggernaut.