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Nokia to Apple: ‘Oh Yeah? Your Mother’

Nokia to Apple: ‘Oh Yeah? Your Mother’

Phone maker Nokia is up for the challenge from Apple as the schoolyard dust-up between the two, launched last October by Nokia, rages on.

On Jan. 15, according to reporting by the BBC, “Apple filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission asking it to block Nokia imports to the U.S.”

Nokia responded with the corporate legalese equivalent of “Oh yeah? Your mother.”

In October, Nokia sued Apple, claiming that that Apple’s iPhone (News - Alert) infringed ten of its patents. Not to be outdone, Apple countersued, saying the Finnish phone maker had “copied certain aspects of the iPhone,” according to the Beeb, and infringed not ten, but “13 of its patents.” So there. Take that, I double-dog dare you.

In late December, Nokia filed a further claim with the ITC, alleging Apple (News - Alert) infringed seven of its patents in “virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers.” Word is they don’t like the color of the Apple cafeteria, either.

Somebody said — and made a ton of money saying — that we learned everything we needed to learn in kindergarten. This spat isn’t much more glorified than that, as industry observer Tony Bradley noted: “So far the Apple legal team seems content to pursue a sort of ‘me too’ legal strategy where it simply accuses Nokia of whatever it is Nokia has accused it of. It’s like a third-grade playground argument that amounts to exchanges of ‘I know you are, but what am I?’”

Nokia said it would “study the complaint and defend itself vigorously,” and if form holds true, stick its tongue out and find a few more things to file against Apple for, meet Apple out back behind the gym after school and give Apple a serious noogie.

As Bradley said, “Both sides appear prepared to stand their ground…for now. If the ITC agrees to investigate either complaint and imposes an injunction against either party, the ramifications could be significant. However, it is a lengthy process that will most likely not see any decision until 2011, at the earliest.”

It would seem with all the important issues out there, someone could prod Apple to take care of the most critical issues, like getting The Beatles on iTunes already. Probably have to buy off Yoko, she’s usually the screechy snag in such deals.

Nokia’s certainly doing its share of trash-talking, as a company official told the press that Apple’s latest mortar round “does not alter the fact that Apple has failed to agree appropriate terms for using Nokia technology and has been seeking a free ride on Nokia’s innovation since it shipped the first iPhone in 2007.”

[Thanks: http://fixed-mobile-convergence.tmcnet.com]

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