Since Apple won its monumental case against Samsung in California last fall, things haven’t really been going its way. Its billion dollar settlement has been nearly cut in half, and its request to ban Samsung’s infringing products has been denied.
But it appears that Nokia, of all companies, has been watching the case closely. And according to a new report, it has filed a brief with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on behalf of Apple, claiming that Judge Koh got it all wrong…
Reuters reports:
“Nokia has filed a brief in support of Apple Inc’s bid to secure permanent injunctions against several Samsung Electronics Co Ltd phones, making the Finnish smartphone maker the only outside group to come forward in backing the iPhone maker’s appeal.
The full brief filed on Monday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington is currently sealed. In an accompanying summary, however, Nokia argued that a trial court judge got it wrong when she denied Apple’s request for a permanent injunction.”
In the filing, Nokia’s attorney Keith Broyles argues that US District Judge Lucy Koh erred by ruling that Apple must establish a “causal nexus” between its patented feature and the demand for its phones in order to secure a permanent injunction.
“Nokia has recently been involved in numerous U.S. patent lawsuits, as both a plaintiff and defendant,” Broyles wrote. “Nokia is thus both a significant patent owner that might seek an injunction to protect its patent rights, and a manufacturer in an industry in which patent owners routinely issue threats of injunctions for patent infringement.”
Koh issued the ruling in a tandem court order on December 18 of last year, alongside her decision to throw out Samsung’s motion for a new trial on the back of jury misconduct claims. Apple’s appeal on the ruling is scheduled for later this year.
Interestingly enough, Apple and Nokia were once in their own patent battle. Nokia sued the iPhone-maker back in 2009—well before Apple’s war on Android began—over infringement. Apple settled with Nokia in 2011 for an undisclosed amount.