Nokia Seeks BlackBerry Sales Ban In UK, US And Canada

Nokia has asked courts in the UK, US and Canada to block sales of BlackBerry smartphones following the Finnish manufacturer’s patent lawsuit victory over RIM in Sweden.

The Stockholm Chamber of Commerce had been asked to stand as an arbitrator following a dispute between the two companies regarding the use of Nokia’s patents in smartphones and tablets that feature WLAN connections.

RIM had argued that an earlier licensing deal agreed with Nokia meant that it should not have to pay a separate fee for the technologies, however the chamber disagreed. RIM’s existing agreement only covered essential patents for GSM, WCDMA and CDMA2000 mobile technologies, and not Wi-Fi.

Blackberry ban possible

Nokia has said that the ruling means that RIM is not allowed to produce devices that feature WLAN connectivity and wants to see sales halted. A RIM spokesperson told TechWeekEurope that it would respond in due course.

“Research In Motion has worked hard to develop its leading-edge BlackBerry technology and has built an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio of its own,” they said. “RIM will respond to Nokia’s petitions in due course.”

The two companies are engaged in a separate lawsuit related to patents relating to dual function antennas and multimode radios.

The timing of Nokia’s action is bad for RIM, which is preparing to launch smartphones running its new operating system, BlackBerry 10. The platform is seen as critical to the future of the Canadian manufacturer, which has struggled in the smartphone market due to increased competition from Apple and Android manufacturers. However despite its troubles, RIM recently leapfrogged Nokia into fifth place in the market, according to sales figures from IDC.

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