Lawsuits

AT&T Mobility has been socked with a class action lawsuit claiming the company overcharges iPad and iPhone subscribers for data usage. The plaintiff in the case claims they purchased a new iPhone and completely turned off any functions that would use cellular data. After 10 days of sitting idle, the device clocked charges for 2.3 kilobytes transferred over 35 transactions.

Although this isn't a whole lot of data, it could point to a problem with millions of subscribers tallying up phantom data usage. Additional claims in the lawsuit point to independent studies accusing AT&T of overclocking web data usage by 7-14 percent per transaction, with instances of up to 300 percent.

Apple's lawyers now have another fly to swat after a California man stepped up with a class action lawsuit over the iPhone 4's glass. According to Apple, the glass found on the iPhone 4 is "20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic." Apparently none of this matters when you drop the device on the ground from three feet up.

The plaintiff claims his daughter dropped his three-week old iPhone 4 from that height and the thing busted. In the lawsuit, he claims that "months after selling millions of iPhone 4s, Apple has failed to warn and continues to sell this product with no warning to customers that the glass housing is defective." His iPhone 3GS survived several similar incidents with no damage, so in his mind, the iPhone 4 should, too.

Not long after Apple counter-sued Nokia, the stakes of the battle have increased. Nokia is now claiming that Apple has violated its patents in almost all of its consumer electronics products. The US International Trade Commission has received word that Nokia believes Apple's iPhones, iPods and computers are all abusing Nokia's intellectual property rights.

Initially, Nokia claimed that Apple had violated patents including GSM and UMTS communications standards as well as security and encryption standards in its iPhone. Apple countered the lawsuit by saying that Nokia illegally copied 13 of its own patents and named the Nokia E71 as a device that completely mimics the iPhone.

Apple has responded to Nokia's patent infringement lawsuit as any self-respecting major corporation would - with a countersuit! We previously reported that Nokia was attempting to recover up to $12 per iPhone sold by Apple for patent licensing royalties.

The patents in question include GSM and UMTS communications standards as well as security and encryption standards. Apple says Nokia has illegally copied 13 of its own patents and named the Nokia E71 as a device that completely bites off the iPhone.

Now Nokia is taking Apple to court for patent infringement. Ten different patents, to be precise. Nokia claims Apple has neglected to license Nokia's technology including the GSM and UMTS communications standards the iPhone uses.

Nokia along with other companies such as Samsung and Ericsson have invested billions in the development of the two standards. Nokia alone claims to have invested $60 billion in the technology and has licensed the patents to 40 different wireless device manufacturers.