Nokia Expresses Support For Apple In Patent Case Against Samsung

Nokia Expresses Support For Apple In Patent Case Against Samsung

March 7, 2013 | By Pradeep

Nokia has filed its amicus brief yesterday in court in order to support Apple in the ongoing patent case between Apple ans Samsung. Nokia is supporting Apple’s argument that U.S. patent holders have access to injunctive relief even if a defendant can argue that the accused products potentially implement (or infringe) vast numbers of patents.

Here is the part of the Nokia’s brief submitted to the court,

DESIRABILITY OF AMICUS BRIEF

The district court’s ruling that in order to obtain a permanent injunction against an infringing competitor, a patent holder must also establish a “causal nexus” between the patented feature and the source of demand for the infringing product could cause wide-ranging damage to the United States patent protection landscape. By creating such a rule, the district court has diverged from the precedent of this court and could severely restrict, if not outright eliminate in some circumstances, the ability of a patent holder to obtain injunctive relief.

Amici urge this court to reverse the district court’s order denying permanent injunctive relief, because the new “causal nexus” requirement set forth therein sets a dangerous precedent. This Court has previously determined that while the Supreme Court’s decision in eBay v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388, 393 (2006) eliminated any presumption that the holder of an infringed patent is automatically entitled to a permanent injunction, that decision was in no way intended to eliminate the availability of injunctive relief altogether. See Robert Bosch LLC v. Pylon Mfg. Corp., 659 F.3d 1142, 1149 (Fed. Cir. 2011). The “causal nexus” requirement as applied by the district court here, making the evidentiary standard for obtaining a permanent injunction so burdensome and strict that it may rarely, if ever, be met, will essentially lead to a compulsory-licensing system wherein patent holders are forced to license patented technology to competing firms, which could in turn harm incentives to innovate.

Read about it in detail from the link below.