Blackberry devices could be forced off shop shelves if it does not agree to pay licence fees
Nokia has asked courts in the US, UK and Canada to block sales of rival Blackberry smartphones.
It follows a patent dispute between the Finnish company and Blackberry's parent, Research In Motion (RIM).
Nokia says an earlier ruling means RIM is not allowed to
produce devices that offer a common type of wi-fi connectivity until it
agrees to pay licence fees.
All current Blackberries would be affected. RIM had no comment.
It is the latest legal distraction for the Canadian company
as it prepares to launch an operating system that could determine its
survival.
Share drop
Nokia's action comes two months after an arbitration ruling by the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce in Sweden.
The organisation had been asked to act as an arbitrator in a
dispute over RIM's use of handsets and tablets featuring wireless active
network (WLAN) connections to the internet.
Nokia says more than 40 companies license its mobile-phone patents
RIM had argued that an earlier licensing deal with Nokia meant
it should not have to pay a separate fee for the technologies. However,
the tribunal disagreed.
After news of Nokia's latest action was
revealed by Computerworld magazine, RIM's shares fell more than 10% in
after-hours trading in New York.
When contacted by the BBC, Nokia confirmed it had taken
action "with the aim of ending RIM's breach of contract", adding it
would also continue to pursue a separate case against RIM in Germany involving antenna, email and navigation technologies.
Nokia noted it had licensed its intellectual property rights
to more than 40 other companies. The revenue from such deals helps
justify its current $11.8bn (£7.4bn) market valuation.
Patent wars
RIM is also fighting several other patent lawsuits at this time.
They include a dispute with Washington-based patent portfolio
owner SoftVault Systems, which alleges RIM has infringed its
anti-piracy DRM (digital rights management) technologies.
RIM is also involved in a case against California-based
Lochner, which is suing a number of big-name tech firms over the way
their devices play videos streamed over the internet.
RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins talks through the Blackberry 10 system
RIM has itself sued others in the past over patents, including
Motorola - before the handset division was bought by Google - and the
instant message software Kik,
However, the timing of the clash with a big-player like Nokia
could be particularly troubling as it comes less than three months
before RIM plans to release its first Blackberry 10 handsets.
"RIM has had a tough time losing market segment to other
smartphones. And the future of the business is now going to be based on
the success of its new operating system, which itself has been delayed,"
said UK-based patent attorney Andrew Alton, from Urquhart-Dykes &
Lord, who has previously acted for Apple.
Cutting-edge research around the world will soon launch a new era
in human procreation – a world in which embryos can be ‘brought to term’
in artificial wombs, replacing traditional pregnancies.
Cornell University’s Dr. Hung-Ching Liu has engineered
endometrial tissues by prompting cells to grow in an artificial uterus.
When Liu introduced a mouse embryo into the lab-created uterine lining,
“It successfully implanted and grew healthy,” she said in this New Atlantis Magazine article. Scientists predict the research could produce an animal womb by 2020, and a human model by early 2030s.
In Japan, Juntendo University researcher Yosinori Kuwabara
and his team kept goat fetuses growing for ten days. While this womb
was only a prototype, Kuwabara predicts that a fully functioning
artificial womb capable of gestating a human fetus will evolve in the
near future.
However, ethicists voice concerns that this technology could endanger
the very meaning of life. Mother-child relationships, the nature of
female bodies, and being ‘born’, not ‘made’ all play a role in defining
how most people around the world view this magical state of existence
called life. Artificial wombs will enable both men and women to
reproduce entirely alone, removing intercourse from the reproductive
equation.
But proponents believe people will reason,
“Why risk gestating the baby in a biological womb, when this new
science can produce a child with our exact genetic makeup, perfect
personality, and zero flaws.”
“The womb is a dark and dangerous place,
a hazardous environment,” says University of Virginia Professor Joseph
Fletcher. Fetuses are 100% dependent on their mom’s health and sensible
judgment. If the mother falls prey to accidents, disease, or inadequate
nutrition, the embryo can become traumatized.
Although naysayers believe that this bold science makes us less
human, most experts predict that artificial wombs will one day be
accepted by mainstream society as more people recognize its many
benefits. Babies would no longer be exposed to alcohol or illegal drugs
by careless mothers, and the correct body temperature would always be
maintained, with 100% of necessary nutrients provided.
Concerns
over losing emotional bond between mother and newborn are unwarranted,
say scientists. Artificial intelligence advances expected over the next
two decades will enable doctors to reproduce exact parent emotions and
personalities via vocal recordings, movement, and other sensations. The
developing infant would be maintained in a safe secure environment,
connected electronically to the mother 24/7.
In the near term though, experts predict most women will probably
gestate their children the old-fashioned way; but career-minded females
might welcome a concept that allows them to bear children and raise a
family without becoming pregnant, a physical condition that often
weakens their job status.
Ultimately, this technology would enable anyone – single, married,
male, female, young, old, heterosexual or gay – to combine DNA from his
or her own body with another person; and the gene pool marches on; a
clean birth without pain or morning sickness.
As this science matures, people could freeze eggs and sperm in their
teen years when they are most physically fit; then create children later
when ready for a family. Artificial wombs may sound radical, but people
already donate eggs and sperm to create life in a lab and bring it to
term in a surrogate mother.
In an unusual twist, this technology offers justification to pro-lifers in the abortion debates.
Choosing an abortion to protect a mother’s health would not be
necessary, as artificial wombs could bring all aborted embryos to term.
Unwanted pregnancies would no longer mean a death sentence for the
unborn.
As we move into the future, this procedure could become the
preferred method of birthing; but today, many disagree. Some see
artificial wombs as a triumph of modern science; others believe it’s the
ultimate folly. We ask again; is a sexless reproduction society in our
future? Time will tell. Comments welcome.
Hakuna maoni:
Chapisha Maoni