ESPOO, Finland - World's leading handset manufacturer Nokia has filed a complaint against US-based electronics conglomerate Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and Wireless LAN (WLAN) standards.

Nokia is a leading innovator in wireless communications technologies having invested close to US$60 billion over the last two decades in research and development covering a broad spectrum of technologies related to wireless and radio communnication. The resulting patents and other intellectual property rights have now become the industry standards and capitalizing on this research initiative, the Finnish giant has license agreements with approximately 40 companies, that cover most of the  leading mobile device vendors.

However, Nokia has accused Apple's iPhone of flouting as many as ten patents related to technologies fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and Wireless LAN standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption, and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since it was introduced in 2007. Nokia has accused Apple of taking on a "free ride" on Nokia technologies by refusing to comply with terms of Nokia's intellectual property rights.

As per Neil Mawston at Strategy Analytics, Apple may have to pay Nokia anything between US$200 million and US$1 billion for flouting Nokia patents used in 34 million iPhones shipped so far. The Cuppertino-based company has been riding high on the success of its latest market entry iPhone 3GS, having sold around 7.4 million handsets in last quarter alone. While Apple has been penetrating the smartphone market, industry leader Nokia has been losing its foothold in this segment. Nokia has been trying to re-emerge in the smartphone segment but its market percentage continues to recede in wake of competition from Apple, RIM and other manufacturers. The latest move by Nokia opens up an interesting chapter in the never-ending saga of competition among the big wigs of the handset industry.