Nokia takes on Apple over phone patents

Nokia has filed suit against Apple over alleged patent infringement.

The Finnish mobile phone giant said on Thursday that it was seeking judgement with a US Federal court in Delaware over what it says are infringements by Apple on ten of its patents.

The patents in question concern wireless networking, GSM components and UMTS 3G connections. Nokia claims that Apple has been violated that patents with components in the iPhone that handle encryption, wireless networking and speech processing.

Nokia said that it currently licenses out the patents so roughly 40 vendors, but Apple had been using the technology without seeking a license since the 2007 release of the original iPhone model.

Nokia vice president of legal and intellectual technology Ilkka Rahnasto said that by not paying for use of the technology, Apple was looking for a "free ride " on Nokia's €40 billion (A$65 billion) research efforts.

The basic principle in the mobile industry is that those companies who contribute in technology development to establish standards create intellectual property, which others then need to compensate for," said Rahnasto.

"Apple is also expected to follow this principle."

The suit from Nokia comes just days after Apple announced that its iPhone line had moved some 7.4 million units as part of what was the company's most successful financial quarter ever.