E-commerce and cloud computing giant Amazon has filed a wide-ranging patent infringement lawsuit against Finnish telecommunications company Nokia, alleging that the company misappropriated Amazon’s cloud computing innovations.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware on July 30, 2024, less than a year after Nokia filed suit against Amazon over its video streaming technology.
Amazon’s complaint accuses Nokia of infringing 12 patents related to cloud computing and virtualization technologies. The Seattle-based tech giant alleges that Nokia’s products, including its CloudBand infrastructure software and Nuage Networks virtualization services platform, incorporate Amazon’s patented innovations without permission.
“Amazon pioneered the cloud, and Nokia is currently using Amazon’s patented cloud innovations without permission,” the lawsuit states. Amazon is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction to prevent further infringement.
The legal counterattack comes after Nokia announced it had launched litigation against Amazon in multiple jurisdictions, including the United States, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the European Unified Patent Court, in October 2023. Nokia’s lawsuit alleged that Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service and devices infringe Nokia’s video-related patents.
“Litigation is not our first resort. The vast majority of our patent license agreements are agreed amicably,” Nokia’s chief licensing officer for emerging markets, Arvin Patel, said at the time. Patel emphasized that Nokia has been in discussions with Amazon for years, adding that “sometimes litigation is the only response we have to companies that don’t play by the rules that others follow and respect.”
Amazon’s lawsuit paints a different picture, depicting Nokia as a company desperately pivoting to cloud technology after losing ground in the mobile phone market. “To save the company, Nokia exited its mobile device business in 2014 — its chairman called it a ‘transformative moment’ — and then pivoted to selling off the 5G network infrastructure and related services it had acquired from Alcatel-Lucent in 2016,” the complaint reads.
The lawsuit further alleges that Nokia’s “new corporate strategy” included leveraging Amazon’s innovative solutions, including patented technologies, to address problems faced by cloud service providers.
In response to Amazon’s lawsuit, Nokia issued a statement saying, “We respect the intellectual property rights of others and expect others to do the same. We have been informed of the patent infringement allegations in the lawsuit filed by Amazon in the District Court of Delaware. We are reviewing these matters and will vigorously defend ourselves in court.”
The legal battle highlights the growing importance and complexity of cloud computing technology in the modern technology industry. Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has grown to become the world’s leading provider of cloud computing services, used by businesses large and small in 190 countries around the world. More than 90 percent of the Fortune 100 companies and most of the Fortune 500 companies use AWS, according to Amazon filings.
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 distributed program execution and management.
reference: Amazon Web Services and Nokia partner to power service provider cloud migration
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