Nokia has taken legal action against technology giants Amazon and HP, filing a lawsuit in Delaware federal court alleging patent infringement related to video streaming technologies.
The Finnish telecommunications company's suit claims that Amazon's Prime Video and Twitch streaming services, and HP's computers, have violated several Nokia patents related to video streaming, including video compression, content recommendation, and delivery technologies, as per a Reuters report. The lawsuit contends that Amazon and HP have misused Nokia's technology without obtaining the necessary licenses.
Case Filed in Multiple Courts
Besides taking legal action in the US, Nokia is also pursuing related lawsuits against Amazon in Germany, India, the UK, and the European Unified Patent Court. Both Amazon and HP have chosen to stay quiet about the ongoing court battles, with HP not yet replying to comment requests.
Nokia's transition from manufacturing cell phones in the 2000s and 2010s has led it to focus on research and development, as well as providing network equipment to other companies.
The Nokia lawsuit mentions that dozens of companies have taken licenses for Nokia's video encoding and decoding patents, which enable streaming video with higher quality while requiring less bandwidth and data storage. Some of these patents are considered essential to International Telecommunication Union standards for video coding technology, and Nokia claims that it offered fair license terms to Amazon and HP.
Nokia's demands from these court proceedings also involve blocking the alleged infringing activity. The tech firm is also after an undisclosed sum of cash for damages caused by these supposed infringements.
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This legal action comes after Nokia announced a 5G wireless patent license agreement with Apple earlier this year. Nokia's patent portfolio, as per the company's announcement, is built on an investment of over 140 billion euros ($147 billion) in research and development and includes around 20,000 patent families.
Nokia is Open to Settlement
The Chief Licensing Officer of Nokia, Arvin Patel, underlined the company's commitment to reaching amicable agreements with businesses that use their technology and engaging in constructive, good-faith negotiations regarding compensation and royalties.
"We've been in discussions with each of Amazon and HP for several years, but sometimes litigation is the only way to respond to companies that choose not to play by the rules followed and respected by others," said Patel, as quoted by TNW.
In October of last year, Nokia disclosed plans to cut 14,000 jobs as part of strategies to lessen costs and weather a difficult market atmosphere. In addition to that slice of bad news was the revelation of a 69% decrease in third-quarter profits, an effect of economic instability influencing both ordinary consumers' and mobile operators' expenditure habits, according to Fortune.
The tech company based in Espoo, Finland hopes to cut expenses by 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) by 2026 in comparison with its current spending rates.
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