Nokia Asks Court To Block RIM Products For Violating Patent Agreement

itwbennett writes "The ITworld article reads: 'Nokia has asked a California court to enforce an arbitration award that would prevent Research In Motion from selling products with wireless LAN capabilities until the companies can agree on patent royalty rates. Nokia and RIM both declined to comment on Nokia's request, a copy of which was obtained by IDG News Service, but such a filing is typically made after two parties settle a dispute through arbitration but one party does not follow through on the agreement.'" Also from the article: "The patents in question are U.S. patents 5,479,476, which covers user-adjustable modes for phones; 5,845,219, which covers call alert during silent mode; 6,049,796, which covers real-time search on a personal digital assistant; 6,055,439, which covers a cellphone user interface; 6,253,075, which covers call rejection; and 6,427,078, which covers a small, handheld workstation."

This is idiotic

[GameboyRMH]

These patents are round-corner-grade stupid.

This makes me sick

[ciderbrew]

These shouldn't have patents in the first place! They'd patent the wheel if they could.

Re:I have patented breathing.

[gstoddart]

But that doesn't really apply when we're talking about a standard (Wi-Fi) on a standard type of device (PDA).

I couldn't agree more. We've had variants of 802 for decades (it's ethernet basically), and 802.11 since 1997 or so.

To me this sounds like so many patents which seem to read "a system for doing something well known, but with a computer". Connecting a device to a network isn't exactly anything new ... having a hand-held device connect to a wifi network is something which is pretty obvious by now.

Does Nokia try to sue laptop makers who connect to wifi? Or does some how "with a cell phone" magically make this an innovation?

All tablets I've ever seen can connect to wifi, and some of those can also use cell signals as well. Does Nokia sue them? What is the cutoff point at which adding wifi to a new device ceases to be an innovation, and becomes something obvious?

This is really stupid.

Nokia Suing RIM?

[h4rr4r]

So is the point here just to funnel what little future these companies have into their lawyers pockets?

If you are circling the drain spending all your income on lawsuits seems unwise.

LMAO

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

You know you are in dire straights (Nokia) when they are anticipating competition from RIM.