Michael S Sutton Ltd, a New Zealand company, has filed a case
with the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
The claim relates to US pa tent number 5,771,238, awarded
in 1998. It describes an "enhanced one way radio seven bit data
network".
The lawsuit says that many of the Finnish company's technologies
infringe. "In particular, the accused products include Nokia’s
messaging applications running on Nokia phone devices which enable
MMS messages and SMS messages, including the transmitting of ring
tones, Operator Logos, CLI Logos, vCards, vCalendars; Nokia’s Smart
Messaging Service Center applications; those applications that
implement the Computer Interface to Message Distribution protocol;
and Nokia’s implementation of the WAP 2.0, 1.2, 1.1, and 1.0 in its
phone devices," says the complaint.
Nokia said that it would defend itself against the charge. "This
case was previously filed against Nokia and then voluntarily
dismissed by the plaintiff," a spokeswoman told the Reuters news
agency. "We will analyze the details of the new case which was
filed on 30 April, 2007 and actively defend the rights of
Nokia."
Michael S Sutton Ltd is claiming wilful infringement which, if
proved, entitles it to triple damages. It is also seeking a jury
trial and asking for an injunction to stop Nokia's use of
technology.
Nokia is already involved in a dispute with Qualcomm over
patents and the cross licensing of patents. A long-running
agreement ended in April over each company's use of the other's
technology, and no replacement agreement has been signed.
