According to Reuters, Nokia is now in support of Apple in its court battle against Samsung over a number of infringed products. Apple filed suit against Samsung to block the sale of products that were previously ruled as infringed. Nokia’s attorney Keith Broyles filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals, claiming that Judge Lucy Koh was wrong in when she ruled that Apple would have to justify the relationship between the patented feature and the demand for a product before an injunction could be filed.

Apple and Samsung have been locked in an all out legal war, after the two companies disputed over a patent in 2009, which was later settled through a licensing agreement. Nokia’s brief was not filed in direct support of Apple but was instead done under the terms that Koh’s ruling could potentially harm the United States patent protection operations. Without patents being rightfully granted and injunctions being rejected, Broyles believes that innovation could take a negative hit.

Nokia has recently been involved in numerous U.S. patent lawsuits, as both a plaintiff and defendant. Nokia is thus both a significant patent owner that might seek an injunction to protect its patent rights, and a manufacturer in an industry in which patent owners routinely issue threats of injunctions for patent infringement.

In recent months, Samsung has become a serious competitor for Apple in the mobile devices market, particularly with positive sales of its Galaxy S and Note devices. With the patent battle ongoing in court, and competition in the market heating up between the two companies, it is not surprising that a company such as Nokia would come out in support of Apple.

Without injunctions and some products being banned from sale, the innovative drive in the mobile devices market is lost, instead producing a number of clone copies of one device such as the iPhone.

{Via MacRumors}

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