Dive Brief:

• Nokia Corp. on Wednesday sued Apple Inc. for allegedly violating 32 technology patents in Germany and the United States, according to Recode. The lawsuits cover patents for "displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding."
• "Since agreeing a license covering some patents from the Nokia Technologies portfolio in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers made by Nokia to license other of its patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products," Nokia said in a statement.
• Apple countered: "Unfortunately, Nokia has refused to license their patents on a fair basis and is now using the tactics of a patent troll to attempt to extort money from Apple by applying a royalty rate to Apple's own inventions they had nothing to do with."

Dive Insight:

Nokia was once a huge player in the mobile phone business, but recently announced it is debuting new Android phones next year. Nokia sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft two years ago, but it still has several mobile equipment patents.

Apple and Nokia signed a deal in 2011 that covered some Nokia patents, but Nokia has been trying strike a deal with Apple to cover additional patents. Nokia claims such efforts have now stalled, hence the lawsuit.

Earlier this week, Apple sued Acacia Research Corp. and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc., accusing the two companies of colluding with Nokia to charge Apple unfair prices in an attempt to extort them.

Apple, Samsung, Google and several other companies have all sued each other at various times for alleged patent violations on various technologies used in smartphones.