Nokia kicks Qualcomm while it's down

Finnish equipment manufacturer Nokia took the opportunity to put the boot into Qualcomm again on Monday, claiming that the embattled chip firm is infringing Nokia patents in its broadcast media business.

US chip vendor Qualcomm is still dealing with the fallout after the International Trade Commission (ITC) banned the import of future 3G handsets using its chips in the US.

Nokia has filed patent counter assertions against Qualcomm in the Eastern District of Texas Court. The filing claims Qualcomm uses six Nokia implementation patents in its MediaFLO and BREW businesses without authorisation.

Qualcomm has previously sought injunctions against Nokia and the Finnish vendor said it is seeking both damages and injunctive relief.

In April, Qualcomm filed a lawsuit alleging that Nokia infringes upon three of its patents involving certain types of mobile software download and execution environments.

“Nokia has a strong history of innovation in IP broadcast television and mobile download environments predating Qualcomm’s activities,” said Tero Ojanpera, chief technology officer at Nokia. “This is another example where Qualcomm has effectively copied Nokia’s innovations. We believe that, for MediaFLO to evolve and for BREW to remain viable, Qualcomm needs access to these and many other patented Nokia inventions.”

Nokia believes its patents are at the core of MediaFLO and BREW technologies, specifically in ensuring the broadcast quality of service within MediaFLO and in enabling the download of applications with BREW