Remember Nokia? Amazon's lawyers do, in patent infringement suit

Finnish firm started the networking and cloud fight, Amazon could finish it

Updated Amazon has filed a complaint against Nokia accusing the Finnish tech firm of violating a dozen of its patents.

Specifically, Amazon has accused [PDF] Nokia of lifting patents around virtual machine and networking technology used on Amazon Web Services. The filing claims Nokia used the lifted tech in its cloud and network services division, which launched in 2020 and includes Nuage and CloudBand offshoots.

"Nokia's 'new company strategy' involved leveraging Amazon's innovative solutions, including Amazon's patented technology, to address issues faced by cloud service providers," the filing reads.

Amazon also seized the opportunity to throw some shade at Nokia's business record. "Amazon's two decades of groundbreaking technological development in cloud computing stand in stark contrast to Nokia's recent efforts," the complaint says. "Nokia's failure to anticipate the importance of smartphone technology led it to the verge of bankruptcy in 2013." Nokia's handset division was bought by Microsoft that year for $7.2 billion, but the Finnish networking business, and its patent pool, is very much in play.

The 186-page lawsuit painstakingly claims each alleged instance of patent infringement, by quoting Nokia marketing materials and technical diagrams of its cloud services. Amazon isn't seeking a specific amount of cash, but instead simply asks for "adequate" compensation, attorneys' fees, and an injunction on Nokia that would stop its alleged patent violations.

It's likely this complaint is connected to a lawsuit that Nokia filed against Amazon last year. That case, which is still ongoing, is over video streaming tech that Amazon and HP have allegedly been using without permission.

It's not clear whether Amazon will actually pursue the patent infringement claims to the bitter end, or is just using its complaint as a means to bring Nokia to the negotiating table. Patent spats do often result in out-of-court settlements that see one party pay up or sign some sort of licensing agreement, situations that Nokia has experience with.

The Register asked for comment from both Nokia and Amazon. While the latter hasn't yet replied, Nokia told us: "We respect other companies' intellectual property and expect others to do the same. We have just become aware of Amazon's claims of patent infringement in an action they have filed in the Delaware District Court. We will review these matters and defend ourselves vigorously in court." ®

Updated to add on August 2

From what we understand from people familiar with the situation at Amazon, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the internet souk indeed launched this legal action against Nokia in response to lawsuits brought against Amazon by the network equipment maker last year.

We hear there's a feeling within Amazon that Nokia was demanding too much to license its intellectual property, and the AWS giant hopes that this latest round in their legal war will convince Nokia to settle on a fair and reasonable basis. If Nokia wants to sue over the use of video codecs in Amazon's personal tech offerings, Amazon will hit back at Nokia's cloud service.