Nokia filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, offering its opinion on a denial of a request by Apple to ban sales of a number of Samsung phones (including the Galaxy S 4G and Galaxy S2). This is yet another episode of the global patent war in the mobile device space. It is interesting that Nokia is backing Apple in this way, especially since almost all the mobile device manufacturers have law suits against each other (Nokia vs. Apple vs. Samsung vs. HTC vs. etc etc etc).
Back to the case -- In December Apple was denied this request because it did not provide enough evidence to prove relation between Apple's IP and consumer demand for Samsung's phones. Nokia believes that requiring Apple to provide evidence to prove ties between demand for Samsung phones and the patent, Nokia believes this "threatens the traditional purpose of patent law on its head." by being "overly-strict and [causing] undue burden" on Apple.
Amicus briefs are interesting in that they focus on the issue and generally not to harm particular competitors. This is because this may cause a difficult precident for Nokia and other phone manufacturers when selling phones in the market. I suspect this has to do with Samsung's massive market share and initial infringements on Apple's patents. Nokia is looking to overrule the "casual nexus", lack of casual evidence, between demand and IP. I believe there is merits to this appeal but is still secret (the amicus brief is not yet released).
"”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.” - Keith Broyles from Alston & Bird
How will cross collaboration between large mobile manufacturers effect the patent war? I feel like it is definitely hitting the peak of patent litigation in this space. There may be a massive reform or centerpiece legislation that changes this industry for good and ends these massive patent attacks.
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