E-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon has filed a massive patent infringement lawsuit against Nokia, alleging that the Finnish telecommunications company has misappropriated Amazon’s cloud computing innovations.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware on July 30, 2024, comes less than a year after Nokia launched legal action against Amazon over its video streaming technologies.
Amazon’s complaint accuses Nokia of infringing 12 patents related to cloud computing and virtualization technologies. The Seattle-based tech giant claims Nokia’s products, including its CloudBand Infrastructure Software and Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform, incorporate Amazon’s proprietary innovations without permission.
“It was Amazon that pioneered the cloud, and now Nokia is using Amazon’s proprietary cloud innovations without permission,” the lawsuit says. Amazon is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction to prevent further alleged infringement.
This legal counter-offensive follows Nokia’s announcement in October 2023 that it had launched legal action against Amazon in several jurisdictions, including the US, Germany, India, the UK and the European Unified Patent Court. Nokia’s lawsuit alleged that the Amazon Prime Video streaming service and the device infringed Nokia’s video patents.
At the time, Arvin Patel, Nokia’s chief licensing officer for new segments, said: “Litigation is never our first choice. The vast majority of our patent license agreements are negotiated amicably.” Patel emphasized that Nokia has been dealing with Amazon for years, adding, “Sometimes litigation is the only way to respond to companies that choose not to play by the rules that others follow and respect.”
Amazon’s lawsuit paints a different picture, painting Nokia as a company desperate to turn to cloud technology after losing ground in the mobile phone market. The complaint states: “In order to save the company, Nokia exited the mobile device business in 2014 – a move its chairman described as a ‘moment of reinvention’ – and focused on selling the 5G network infrastructure and related services it acquired from Alcatel-Lucent in 2016.”
The suit further alleges that Nokia’s “new corporate strategy” involved leveraging Amazon’s innovative solutions, including its proprietary technology, to solve problems faced by cloud service providers.
In response to Amazon’s lawsuit, Nokia’s statement read: “We respect other companies’ intellectual property and expect others to do the same. We just learned of Amazon’s patent infringement claims in a lawsuit it filed in Delaware District Court. We will investigate these matters and defend ourselves vigorously in court.”
This legal battle underscores the growing importance and complexity of cloud computing technologies in today’s technology landscape. Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has grown to become the world’s leading provider of cloud computing services, used by companies large and small in 190 countries around the world. According to Amazon’s filing, more than 90% of Fortune 100 companies and the majority of Fortune 500 companies use AWS.
The patents at the center of Amazon’s lawsuit cover a range of cloud computing technologies, including virtual network infrastructure, virtual network security, virtual network performance, and running and managing distributed programs.
See also: Amazon Web Services and Nokia have teamed up to better the service provider’s transition to the cloud
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