When Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, sued Apple, Samsung, LG and eight other competitors within six weeks beginning in October, the Finnish technology giant said it was conducting a routine defense of its intellectual property.

But for cell phone makers and suppliers accustomed to swapping valuable technologies, the suits filed by Nokia were far from standard.

Like many cell phone makers, Nokia is fighting the current economic downturn. The company has laid off thousands of employees that year to counter falling sales and profit and its slipping share of the global market, which fell to 35 percent in the third quarter from 41 percent in the second.

Bill Tai, a partner in Charles River Ventures, said the new legal aggressiveness is “a natural evolution” similar to that which took place in the semiconductor and desktop computer businesses during difficult or competitive times.

“As competition has intensified and margins have deteriorated, companies are trying to

put up barriers to protect their positions,” said Mr. Tai, whose firm has invested about $2 billion in start-up tech companies since 1970.

The mobile industry, since its inception, has been a legal battleground. In 2008, Nokia settled a suit with Qualcomm, a U.S. maker of mobile phone chips, and agreed to pay Qualcomm an estimated $400 million a year for Qualcomm patents by 15 years. According to their most recent financial reports, nearly all cell phone makers are suing or being sued.

Research In Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry, is suing Motorola for using 20 of its patents. Motorola has countersued. Palm is being sued by a patent licensing firm in Tyler, Texas, called Saxon Innovations by a third-party application processor. Apple in March won a ruling in Japan against Shigeru Saito Architecture Institute, which had sued by touch-screen patents.

Nokia is fighting 12 suits from IPCom, a German…

Original post by dhiram