Nexus 7 tablet infringes on our patent, claims Nokia

It’s not even been a week since it was unveiled at Google I/O 2012, and reportedly Google’s flagship Nexus 7 tablet has run into some hot water over an alleged patent infringment claim. The claim, which comes from Finnish company Nokia, alleges that the Nexus 7 tablet uses IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard, which is a Nokia patent and hasn’t been licensed for by either Google or Asus, reports The Inquirer.

Quoting a Nokia spokesperson, the report adds, “Nokia has more than 40 licensees, mainly for its standards essential patent portfolio, including most of the mobile device manufacturers. Neither Google nor Asus is licensed under our patent portfolio. Companies who are not yet licensed under our standard essential patents should simply approach us and sign up for a license.”

At the moment, however, there is no saying how Nokia would take things forward. A spokesperson from Asus contacted by The Inquirer reportedly refused to comment on the matter and instead stated, “At the moment, Asus will not be providing any response/comment related." 

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The Galaxy Nexus tablet

Google these days has been facing a few investigations regarding patents. Reports surfaced last week about U.S. antitrust regulators investigating whether Google unit Motorola Mobility was living up to licensing commitments made, when its patents were adopted as industry standards. The Federal Trade Commission sent civil investigative demands, essentially civil subpoenas, to companies this week asking them about Motorola Mobility’s licensing practices, one person said. The industry standards affected have to do with Wi-Fi and video standards, one of the people said. Motorola Mobility has sued Microsoft Corp. for infringement of industry standard patents and asked for its Xbox product to be barred from the U.S. market.

Additionally, the legal patent battle between Apple and Samsung continues to make headlines. Those closely following the chronology of events pertaining to the Apple vs Samsung lawsuit would know that the one time friends have been at it since a while now over the ownership of a host of unresolved patents.

The Google Nexus 7 is the first device running on Google’s latest operating system, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This tablet, manufactured by ASUS is not just designed to take on Apple’s highly successful iPad, but will pose a stiff threat to the Amazon Kindle Fire and Google aims to tackle the competition better with its pricing strategy. Priced at $199 for the low-end version, the tablet has been announced for markets across the United States, Canada, Australia and the UK, with the delivery scheduled for mid-July. However, reports coming in yesterday revealed that those in India will be able to lay their hands on the Nexus 7 only after September.

This seven-inch tablet measures 198.5 x 120 x 10.5 mm and weighs 340g. These dimensions allow it to go head-to-head with the Amazon Kindle Fire. The Google Nexus 7 tablet is available in two storage capacities, which are 8GB and 16GB. As far as connectivity is concerned, the options found on the Nexus 7 include Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth and NFC capabilities. This tablet also comes with Google Wallet pre-installed. As for the camera featured here, it comes as no surprise that Google has just added only a front facing camera that can be used for video calls, but what is interesting is that this camera can shoot HD 720p videos.