The French Withings, a victim of the war between Nokia and Apple – Echoes

Between these two, the war is indeed declared. Apple decided last weekend to withdraw the products from Withings of sale in its stores and on its Web site. The French brand of connected objects (scales, alarm clock, watch,…), which was acquired in April 2016 by Nokia for 170 million euros , is the collateral victims of the battle of patents between the Finnish group and the giant californian.

The initiative of Apple is indeed a figure of retaliation after the complaint lodged on 21 December by the oem of telecom , especially in front of German courts and american. Nokia is accusing the company of Cupertino’s infringement of its intellectual property, after he refused to sign with him an agreement of licence. Thirty patents would be concerned on products and technologies used in the devices of apple : it goes from the design of screens in the design of the chips, passing through the antennas, user interfaces, etc

For Apple, itself very fussy about the use of its own technologies by peers, as evidenced by the legal battle with Samsung, the accusation does not pass. The inventor of the iPhone assimilates the practices Nokia a ” patent troll “, these companies specializing in the acquisition and monetization of patents. “We respect the intellectual property and have always been willing to pay a fair price to secure the rights to the patents covering the technologies used in our products “, commented Apple in a statement sent to the specialized site Recode. “Unfortunately, Nokia has refused to apply a reasonable rate on the exploitation of certain patents, and is now looking to us to extort the money by all means “.

asset value

The two groups are not in their first pass of weapons. In 2009, they had already spread out their disputes before the courts, before signing in 2011 with a licensing agreement allowing Apple to take advantage of the technology by Nokia in its devices, subject to the payment of royalties. This contract expires by the end of this year. And both companies are struggling to hear in order to formalize a new agreement.

In the world of tech, intellectual property, the fruit of heavy investment in R&D, remains active particularly important, as it is to make the most of it. Nokia has made a full-fledged activity, very cost-effective. The former glory of the mobile has several tens of thousands of patents, of which a good part in the phone. Revenues from licenses of these patents, but also of the use of its trademark – the company HMD announced that it would sell smartphones signed Nokia next year – could reach one billion euros in 2016.