Nokia Loses Patent Battle with IPCom

It seems like there are more companies everyday trying to find as many loopholes as possible that will allow them to sue the competition and bring them down a peg or two. Back in 2008, Nokia was accused of infringing upon some patents belonging to the German-based patent firm, IPCom. After more than four years of court dates, uncertainty and a generous amount of headaches, the courts have finally came to a conclusion: Nokia owes IPCom nearly $18 billion in fees.

According to Nokia however, they did nothing wrong and were unjustly penalized. "We respectfully disagree with this decision, but almost all of these phones predated the grant of the patent in February 2011 and our products today use different methods,” said Nokia spokesman, Mark Durrant.

That statement alone pretty much admits that they're completely responsible – specifically the bit about how “almost all of these phones predated the grant.” That logic just doesn't work. No matter how small the amount, according to Durrant's own words even, there were at least a few different models that did in fact use IPCom's technology – after it had received the patent. It seems a little bit like the teenage kid that just got caught stealing from their mother's purse, “Most of the money I took was already going to me for allowance anyway, so...”

At the same time though, IPCom might be making too big a deal out of the whole situation – none of the devices are even on the market anymore. Still, Nokia made a decent chunk of cash through technology that was essentially stolen, and what company wouldn't jump at the chance to pocket such a large sum of money?

Bottom line, there is demonstrable evidence that Nokia was still using the technology through periods of time in which its patents belonged to another company. Similar to Microsoft and Motorola's recent dispute, the whole ordeal could have been easily avoided if they just would have made an effort to ensure the legal distribution of such technologies. If Nokia would have just spent a little bit of cash to obtain the patent, they wouldn't have been court-ordered to shell out billions of dollars to IPCom.

Dealing with business on such a large scale can become brutal at times, and if companies get lazy – they'll end up paying for it eventually, in one way or another.