Lawsuits in the mobile business

This diagram shows what a litigious lot Nokia is! This doesn't really surprise me given how pro-active they are internally (I work there) at procuring patent applications from the product designers. They pay thousands per successful patent! This has led to all sorts of things being patented (I mentioned this post to a designer today and he said a German engineer patented a Dog Phone - I kid you not!) and then seek huge royalties from those who decide to use them. i.e. Kinetic scrolling is owned by Nokia and the major lawsuit between Apple and Nokia is the use of 2G, 3G and Wifi.

Nokia had succeeded in becoming the market leader by following a strategy of incremental innovation and is well known for its high levels of investment in R&D. Back in 1999 Nokia was the undisputed market leader and had the highest market value of any European company and a reputation for being the coolest telecoms company in the world due in part to the iconic Nokia 7110 'Matrix' phone.

These halcyon days seem to be a distant memory and real question needs to be asked how could this decade long investment in R&D and ongoing commitment to “Incremental Innovation” deliver an 80% loss in shareholder value? The answer of course is the iPhone, I strongly recommend an article on Excapite which analyses this fall from grace.

As a footnote to this story, my favorite example of this the complex world of trademark and patent ownership is the word 'Droid' is owned by George Lucas!