Context: On Halloween, Nokia announced the launch of standard-essential patent (SEP) enforcement action over video codecs against Amazon (October 31, 2023 press release by Nokia). There was a false rumor of a settlement. While Nokia made it known that it had entered into a license agreement with some streaming provider, there was no sign of the dispute with Amazon having ended, as none of the cases were withdrawn. Nokia’s most recent financial report described the patent spat as ongoing (July 18, 2024 ip fray article).
What’s new: Yesterday, Amazon filed a countersuit, over 12 patents that are not SEPs and therefore not subject to FRAND licensing pledges, in the District of Delaware.
Direct impact: Given that Amazon is seeking an injunction as well as damages, Nokia will have to consider the potential risk presented by that countersuit when negotiating a cross-license agreement with the technology giant.
Wider ramifications: Nokia previously faced countersuits, though over 5G SEPs, from OPPO and vivo.
Nokia sued “in the US, Germany, India, the UK, and the European Unified Patent Court.” It’s possible that Amazon will also countersue in more than one jurisdiction, but for now only its lawsuit in the District of Delaware is known. Here’s the complaint:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the market-leading cloud services provider in the world. It has many patents in that field and now claims that various Nokia offerings are infringing them: Nokia Airframe Data Center, Nokia CloudBand, Nokia CloudBand Application Manager, Nokia CloudBand Infrastructure Software, Nokia Container Services, Nokia Cloud Operations Manager, Nokia Nuage Networks Virtualized Cloud Services, Nokia Nuage Networks Virtualized Services Platform, and Nokia Nuage Software Defined Network (SDN).
According to the complaint, which was brought on Amazon’s behalf by Fenwick & West and Delaware firm Morris Nichols, Nokia created its Cloud and Network Services division “nearly 15 years after AWS launched”: in 2020.
These are the twelve patents-in-suit:
- U.S. Patent No. 11,516,080 (“Using virtual networking devices and routing information to associate network addresses with computing nodes”)
- U.S. Patent No. 11,425,194 (“Dynamically modifying a cluster of computing nodes used for distributed execution of a program”)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,329,909 (“Dynamically modifying a cluster of computing nodes used for distributed execution of a program”)
- U.S. Patent No. 8,296,419 (same family/title as ‘909 patent)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,253,211 (“Managing communications between computing nodes)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,621,593 (“Managing execution of programs by multiple computing systems”)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,106,540 (“Providing logical networking functionality for managed computer networks”)
- U.S. Patent No. 8,117,289 (“Using virtual networking devices to manage substrate devices”)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,766,912 (“Virtual machine configuration”)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,756,018 (“Establishing secure remote access to private computer networks”)
- U.S. Patent No. 11,336,529 (“Providing virtual networking device functionality for managed computer networks”)
- U.S. Patent No. 11,909,586 (“Managing communications in a virtual network of virtual machines using telecommunications infrastructure systems”)
Cloud computing patents are sometimes difficult to assert because one can’t always find out from the outside how a cloud operates internally. But Amazon apparently believes it has developed strong infringement reads.
It’s highly unlikely that the district court will hold a trial over 12 patents. Amazon will be asked to narrow its case to maybe half of that number. In the meantime, Amazon will see what invalidity contentions and non-infringement arguments Nokia presents.
Amazon wants to be profitable in streaming and is now demonstrating that it is not a soft target for video codec assertions.