Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Farce Which is Nokia's Patent Portfolio, a Ripoff of Other People's Ideas (and Patents)

Nokia ripoffSummary: The untold story about Nokia's alleged ripoff (plagiarism) of other people's patents, which are now being used aggressively in a shakedown campaign even against OEMs that distribute Linux

THE patents of Nokia have been weaponised by Microsoft against Microsoft's competition. We have been writing many articles about it since 2011 and recently we showed that Nokia is nowadays shaking down Android OEMs, too (we last covered this matter earlier this month). It's a serious problem because Nokia has a massive trove of patents and Android, which is built on top of Linux, is the world's leading mobile platform (by far). It's also one of the biggest success stories of Linux.



The other day, Android Headlines published this piece about a software patents case which had culminated in a motion for embargo. Here is the part about Nokia:

In addition to Qualcomm, Apple is also in legal battle with Nokia after the Finnish company sued the tech giant last year for allegedly infringing on its patents for displays, video coding, antennas, software, user interface, and chipsets.


For a number of months we have been speaking to people who know Nokia from the inside. There's a dispute going on and this dispute has just gone public. It serves to show that Nokia hardly deserves the credit it claims for innovation, or at least for patents which Nokia conveniently conflates with innovation.

"It serves to show that Nokia hardly deserves the credit it claims for innovation, or at least for patents which Nokia conveniently conflates with innovation.""You seem to be interested in EPO/USPTO patent issues," we got told, "and we have been following those interesting things that your tweets periodically reveal about EPO and patent practices in general, so thus we are letting you to know about our case."

We don't want to name the company although Nokia, which is well aware of this dispute, already knows who that involves. We'll refer to the person as "Y" and omit any mention of the company. The core story is this:



We found out two years ago with "Y" that his patent was copied by Nokia in the beginning of 2000’s. Today is an important day because it changes a huge chapter (I would say for the better) in our life. We are making this case public now.

"Y", besides living as a foreigner in Finland, loves the country like his second birthplace, he loves the Finnish people, nature and culture, especially the honesty that is highly valued in Finland. Exactly because of this honesty, he could never have imagined that Nokia had literally copied one of his patents.

Of course, this has already been thrown into international hurricane (e.g. Bloomberg, CNET, BBC, CNN, YLE, HS, etc. are already following and aware of the initial data of this case).

This is a campaign to help other inventors too, so kindly help this to be informed to other inventors and patent creators in triplicating their care when negotiating, submitting patents to large companies. "Y" actually did everything by the book, only revealing info when his patent was already published, and then negotiating a license with Nokia but still they didn’t follow the fair practices.

Surprisingly, during these last two years "Y" got into direct contact with Risto Siilasmaa (the chairman of the board of Nokia) and Rajeev Suri (CEO of Nokia), top management and auditors of the company's current Corporate Code of Conduct. Essentially and factually, they didn't act in this disgraceful matter as they advertise, although they are direct responsibilities for not fixing the damages their actions were apt to cause. People in Finland sadly know that besides bringing tax money to the country years ago, the “old” Nokia didn't always respect their subcontractors and other partners. Mr. Siilasmaa has admitted it too (he was earlier subcontracted by Nokia with his own company) and he has campaigned for fixing the culture, talking about the "New Nokia" but this case still follows exactly the same paths as the ones in “Old Nokia". Are they just talking about values of acting ethically but not really doing it?


There are many other disgruntled/exploited people out there whom the Nokia management (and/or board) has betrayed and mistreated. Thankfully, more of them are nowadays getting the courage and coming out (for whatever reason, maybe Nokia's patent aggression). Some of them got in touch with us, but they are not yet prepared to take their stories public. Some of them are GNU/Linux advocates and promoters/proponents of Maemo/MeeGo. They'll never forget what Microsoft did to Nokia. Never.

"There are many other disgruntled/exploited people out there whom the Nokia management (and/or board) has betrayed and mistreated."What does the EPO have to do with it? Actually, it is very much relevant to the above. "EPO is denying to give their examiner report analysis or anything related to the process," we were told, or "why they have accepted the patent of Nokia. They say only Nokia can get those infos."

The video regarding this patent is now public and can be seen below (mind the illustrations, which are direct copies).



We spoke to one of our members who is from Finland about the situation. That was a while back. When one lives in Finland, especially around Helsinki, speaking to Nokians, ex-Nokians, or (sub)contractor is pretty much inevitable and one can learn a lot from them (off the record). "I think there will be a lot of useful information depending on who you can talk with," our member said. "I spoke with a few from Nokia and could not get much info out of them, but did find that they were really worried about a high level mole from Microsoft entering the company. In retrospect that was Elop."

“I spoke with a few from Nokia and could not get much info out of them, but did find that they were really worried about a high level mole from Microsoft entering the company. In retrospect that was Elop.”
      --Anonymous
So our member learned this months before it actually happened.

"A lot of the damage was done after Elop, in the media," our member explained. "In Finland some Microsoft apologists got together and wrote a revisionist history book that got accepted as fact, thus ending any investigations and pre-empting the possibility into criminal investigations into the Nokia board."

"We expect Nokia to shake down many more Android OEMs in the months or years to come."As we have written many dozens of articles since then, the actual history is still documented, albeit not in mainstream Finnish media. The revisionism typically strives to blame Nokia and make its demise look inevitable, with Microsoft as the party attempting to 'rescue' Nokia. That's pretty similar to Netscape revisionism; the cause of the demise is being framed as benevolent, as in "Nokia crashed in spite of Microsoft, not because of Microsoft."

Either way, Nokia is still a pawn of Microsoft, especially in the patents sense. We expect Nokia to shake down many more Android OEMs in the months or years to come. But how legitimate are all these patents? How many of these are ripoffs like the above?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Michael “Monty” Widenius: It Started in 1983 With Richard Stallman (RMS)
The other co-founder of MySQL is a bit notorious for confronting RMS rather viciously
For the Second Time in a Few Weeks Microsoft Lunduke Makes False Accusations Against Senior Red Hat Staff to Incite a Despicable 'Troll Army'
Nothing that Microsoft Lunduke claims of says can be trusted
su lisa && rm -rf /home/ibm/power
Novell was ruined by another person from IBM, Ronald Hovsepian
A Record Demand at Microsoft: Demand to Cancel
What we're witnessing is a very ungraceful destruction of XBox
Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
 
Links 02/10/2025: 'Open' 'AI' Resorting to Gimmicks and Fake Funding, Europe’s ‘Drone Wall’ Discussed
Links for the day
Links 02/10/2025: Brave Passes 100M Users Milestone, Kodak Selling Its Own Film Again
Links for the day
Microsoft is Losing Europe
Hence all the "support" and "discount" offers that are limited to Europe
The Free Software Foundation Starts Fund-raising for 40th Anniversary
New pop-up 2-3 days ahead of the 40th anniversary event
Systemd Breaks Networking in Debian and Microsoft Staff Rushes to Make Face-Saving Excuses in LWN
Microsoft's bluca is already there in the comments, his Microsoft money pays for LWN to let him leave comments early
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Motorcycling in Central Oregon, Protocol Styles and the Flag of Sark
Links for the day
Links 30/09/2025: Death Sentences, Internet Censorship, and Internet Shutdowns
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Social Control Media and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Richard Stallman About to Give More Talks in Europe, Some Confirmed Already
In Göteborg
Links 30/09/2025: CERN in "Have I Been Pwned" and More Windows TCO Blunders
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical is Selling Mass Surveillance and Back Doors as "Security for Ubuntu"
If you are looking for a GNU/Linux distro to use, just remember that Microsoft has Ubuntu in the bag
Justice for Wildlife
animals cannot speak to humans who hate animals
Cowboys Gonna Be Cowboys (on the Internet, They're Not a New Problem)
Boys will be boys
Cowboys of the "Left" and Cowboys of the "Right"
Don't believe the lie that this is some "leftist" thing
When Codes of Conduct Serve to Protect Criminals From Much-Deserved Scrutiny
CoCs are typically unfit for purpose because enforcement lacks context and suitable understanding of the full background (the "full story")
It Took the Open Source Initiative (OSI) 4+ Years to Address the 'Data Breach' or Data Protection Violation Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) in March 2025
We may never know the dialogue or its nature
Even Microsoft's Biggest Boosters (and Media Operatives) Are Turning Against Microsoft
Expect many more layoffs before the fake "results" next month
GNU Was Right 42+ Years Ago
Since then the abusive, user-hostile technology has spread like mushrooms
Old Isn't Always Inadequate
How many gadgets manufactured today (in 2025) will still work in 2075?
The Monkey Business of Rust People
Compatibility won't matter
Almost Half of the FSFE's Money (the Fake 'FSF', Misusing the Brand) Comes From Vodafone
That money always comes with strings, even if they're invisible to most of us
Microsoft Lunduke Spreads Deliberate Lies to Incite Online Mobs
Has he lost his reading comprehension skills?
Our 19th Birthday (in Just Over 5 Weeks From Now)
We meanwhile have ongoing, solid plans to cover patent-related issues when the FSF turns 40
British GNU/Linux Distro FydeOS Tops DistroWatch
That seems like a decent site and decent effort to keep an eye on
We'll Soon Have 75,000 GemText Pages
avoid many perils of today's Web
Google Used Free Software to Build a Monopoly. Now Google Kicks Free Software to the Curb
The "G" in "Google" does not stand for GNU. It never did. It's just another greedy company.
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Retro Hardware, Federated Fragmentation, and Nex Server Written in C
Links for the day
4 More Days Till "4 decades, 4 freedoms, 4 all users"
We are now just 4 days away from the rare anniversary
Two Months After Merging to Hide GitHub Losses Microsoft is Doing It Again (This Time Windows)
Merging those two together is not a sign of strength but a tightening of budget
Speculations About the Next Large Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs
the mass layoffs are likely to happen on week 3 or 4 in October
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 29, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 29, 2025