BlackBerry sues Nokia over patent infringement

BlackBerry has filed a patent-infringement lawsuit against Nokia for allegedly using 11 of its patents. In a complaint filed Tuesday (14 February) in the federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, the Canadian tech major said that Nokia's networking gear including the Flexi multiradio base station, radio network controllers and Liquid radio software infringes 11 patents.

According to Bloomberg, BlackBerry is now demanding royalties on Nokia's mobile network products, although there are no details about the amount the company is demanding. The lawsuit does not seek any court order to put a block on the use of the patents. BlackBerry wants "to license them on fair and reasonable terms".

In the complaint BlackBerry accused Nokia of encouraging consumers and mobile service providers like T-Mobile and AT&T to use mobile network products for their LTE networks. It said, "Nokia has persisted in encouraging the use" of the standard-compliant products without a licence from BlackBerry.

"BlackBerry seeks to obtain recompense for Nokia's unauthorized use of BlackBerry's patented technology," the company said in the complaint.

Nokia is aware of this invention as it has cited certain patents in its own applications.

Former telecommunications giant Nortel Networks previously owned some of the patents, which Nokia once tried to buy as part of a failed bid for the former's business in 2009.

Nortel's patents were bought by Rockstar Consortium for $4.5bn (£3.6bn) in 2011. BlackBerry was a part of this consortium, which also includes companies like Microsoft and Apple.