Apple Files New Trade Complaint With Against Nokia (Update1)

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. filed a new patent- infringement complaint against Nokia Oyj, seeking to block U.S. imports of mobile phones and increasing the legal battle between the two over smartphone technology.

Notice of the complaint was posted yesterday on the Web site of the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington. Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones, filed its own complaint last month at the ITC, seeking to ban imports of Apple’s iPhone, iPod and MacBook products.

The patent fights are part of a larger battle over the smartphone market, the industry’s fastest-growing sector. Nokia’s share of the market fell to 39.3 percent in the third quarter from 42.3 percent a year earlier, while Cupertino, California-based Apple and Research In Motion Ltd., the Waterloo, Ontario-based maker of the BlackBerry, gained, according to research firm Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut.

“Nokia will study the complaint when it is received and continue to defend itself vigorously,” Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant said by text message today. “However this does not alter the fact that Apple has failed to agree appropriate terms for using Nokia technology and has been seeking a free ride on Nokia’s innovation since it shipped the first iPhone in 2007.”

The ITC is a government agency whose job is to protect the U.S. market from unfair trade practices, including patent infringement. If it agrees to consider Apple’s complaint, it could complete the investigation in about 15 months. A copy of the Apple complaint wasn’t immediately available.

The agency hasn’t yet agreed to investigate the complaint filed Dec. 29 by Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, although the ITC typically grants such requests.

The new complaint is In the Matter of Mobile Communications and Computer Devices, 2707, U.S. International Trade Commission (Washington).