Nokia files second complaint against Apple

Nokia has filed a second complaint against Apple with the International Trade Commission (ITC).

Nokia says that "key features" of Apple products infringe on 7 of the Finnish based firm's patents. The features related to the patent are related to multitasking, data syncing, call quality, positioning and Bluetooth technology.

Paul Mellion, Nokia's VP of intellectual property, said, "Our latest ITC filing means we now have 46 Nokia patents in suit against Apple, many filed more than 10 years before Apple made its first iPhone. Nokia is a leading innovator in technologies needed to build great mobile products and Apple must stop building its products using Nokia's proprietary innovation."

The ITC recently ruled against Nokia in a previous filing made by the company against Apple. The Finnish company would not give up so easy and wants Apple to pay for what they did. Nokia also has patent infringement claims against Apple pending in the U.K., Netherlands and Germany and expects some of these claims to come to trial within the next few months.

Source 1: Bloomberg
Source 2: TmoNews

Texting woman who fell into a fountain is dropping her lawsuit against the mall

It was only last week when we reported on one woman's peril in a mall after she accidentally fell into a fountain while walking and texting. The video itself was caught by mall security, but was apparently shown off to others and eventually made its way onto the web. In that short period, the video went viral and the woman who experienced the unfortunate event, 46-year old Cathy Marrero, went on to pursue legal action against the mall.

She soon hired an attorney after finding out that the video hit the web and was experiencing a massive influx of exposure to show off the perils of texting while walking. Granted that she did chuckle about it and said that the video was in itself funny, she was more taken back by how the video was shown off to other people and finally uploaded to the web. Later, she decided to take legal action against the mall citing security concerns and privacy – while raising awareness about the potential consequences of texting. In fact, she even learned her lesson after the incident and said, “Do not text and walk.”

Soon after she took her story to the press, it was later found that she had a long criminal record that dates back to the 90s for various things. More recently however, she was convicted in October 2009 for stealing a co-worker's credit card and making purchases that totaled $5,000. The offenses doesn't stop there because Marrero also has several theft cases on her record as well as a hit-and-run charge.

Once that was out and in the open, Marrero quickly decided to drop the lawsuit she was pursuing against the mall. Finally, the security guard that posted the video was quickly fired from his position. Despite the uncovering of Marrero's past, this whole entire experience just goes to show the consequences while texting on a cell phone.

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Class action suit filed against Samsung and T-Mobile over Android update delay

Samsung Galaxy S phone updates have been one of the most discussed topics in recent months, but some of the users struggling with older versions of Android took their irritation to court. XDA Developers forum has seen a hotly discussed topic about a class action suit that user MicBeast allegedly filed against Samsung and T-Mobile.

The user claims that the two companies have “clearly violated the law concerning Unfair and Deceptive Consumer Business Practices.” While later the status and motivation of the lawsuit were questioned, the very interest in the topic showed that many people find the issue about Android fragmentation increasingly important.

Recently, we saw some reports about an intentional delay of a Froyo update for the Samsung Vibrant, T-Mobile's take on the Samsung Galaxy S, which were not proven.

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Lawsuit: Apple v Nokia

The legal scramble is about to start, so get some more popcorn, fellow readers, all the best lawyers in the world are about to meet in the Apple-Nokia dogfight lawsuit.

In the blue corner, there are Nokia's lawyers, accusing their opponent of infringing on a range of its patent.

In the red corner, there are Apple's lawyers, actively preparing their legal team with the help of more lawyers specialized in tech patent infringement lawsuits.

To make it simpler, we'll quote Lyle Vander Schaaf, an attorney at "Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione" law firm in Washington, who works preparing cases for the commission:

“Usually you have one 800-pound gorilla going after a new entrant. Here you’ve got 800-pound gorillas fighting each other.”

Apple sits on $40 billion in cash, and we think Nokia would love some of that to compensate for its diminishing profits since the first iPhone got announced.

It seems that the tech lawyer field is certainly not affected by the financial crisis, and a lot of lawyers will walk away with fat paychecks.

Would you like to hear more about this lawsuit ?

Do you guys think this could affect us, regular consumers ?