The patents were being used by the iPhone since its introduction in June 2007, and are related to several technologies said by Nokia. According to the statement from Nokia, these patents covered the wireless data, encoding and decoding of speed, and also security and encryption.

Nokia, which is the world's largest mobile handset maker by a wide margin, claimed that it has invested about 40 billion Euros, or approximately $60 billion, in research and development for the last 20 years to attain these patents. Approximately 40 companies, including all the leading mobile device vendors have licensed those patents of Nokia but Apple has not.

Ilkka Rahnasto who is Nokia's vice president of legal and intellectual property said in a statement that the basic rule in the mobile industry is, that the companies contributing in the technology development establish standards to create intellectual property, for which others have to compensate. He further said that Apple is also required to follow this principle of mobile industry. By refusing to accept these terms for Nokia's intellectual property, Apple is trying to have a free ride on the back of Nokia's innovation.