Photo courtesy of Livbit

Over the last few months Apple has found themselves in a couple of legal battles which carried  right into the new year. Their latest legal battle has been flaring up with the Finnish handset maker the Nokia Corporation. Apple would like to prevent the importing of all purportedly patent infringing Nokia phones into the US. This was no doubt in retaliation to Nokia’s claim against Apple late last year. Nokia filed their complaint in an attempt to ban all iPhone, iPod and Macbook imports.

Nokia still holds quite a large chunk of phone marketshare in the US. Their Q3 results were down last year to 39.3% from a year prior which came in at 42.3%.   While apple and RIM are both gaining ground in the market, the world’s largest handset maker Nokia continues to lose ground each year.

“Nokia will study the complaint when it is received and continue to defend itself vigorously,” Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant said by text message today. “However this does not alter the fact that Apple has failed to agree appropriate terms for using Nokia technology and has been seeking a free ride on Nokia’s innovation since it shipped the first iPhone in 2007.”

The International Trade Commission’s job is to investigate and analyze data in relation to US trade, and to protect the US from unjust and unfair trade. The ITC must first agree to investigate the claims of both companies. If they agree to investigate these actions, they could take up to 15 months to complete their investigation. If you need more information on these claims, a quick Google search should reveal all the information your after. Docket 2707 is Apple’s filing against Nokia. I could not find the official document that Nokia filed against Apple, but they both are counter suing each other with no signs of a quick settlement in sight. In short, Nokia filed 10 accounts against Apple claiming they are stealing manufacturing practices they developed and Apple is countering with 13 right back in their face of the same practice.

We’ll see if this suit really effects either of the handset giants or not. Usually its a hand slap to the tune of several hundred millions dollars and an apology letter. I’m sure for once Microsoft is happy to sit back and watch two other tech companies battling for control of the market. We’ll just have to wait and see which side comes out the victor, and which side ends up signing the check.

Via Gizmodo, Bloomberg