Nokia has today filed a number of complaints against Apple in Germany and the US, alleging that Apple products infringe a number of Nokia patents.

Following the acquisition of full ownership of NSN in 2013 and Alcatel-Lucent in 2016, Nokia now owns three portfolios of intellectual property. The company's tens of thousands of patents cover many important technologies used in smartphones, tablets, personal computers and similar devices.

According to Nokia, since agreeing a license covering some patents from its in 2011, Apple has declined subsequent offers to license other of Nokia's patented inventions which are used by many of Apple's products.

Ilkka Rahnasto, head of Patent Business at Nokia, said: "Through our sustained investment in research and development, Nokia has created or contributed to many of the fundamental technologies used in today`s mobile devices, including Apple products. After several years of negotiations trying to reach agreement to cover Apple`s use of these patents, we are now taking action to defend our rights."

These actions have been filed with the Regional Courts in Dusseldorf, Mannheim and Munich in Germany and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, with 32 patents in suit across all of the actions, covering technologies such as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding. Nokia is in the process of filing further actions in other jurisdictions.

Nokia's lawsuits cover patents for displays, user interfaces, software, antennas, chipsets and video coding.

Apple on Tuesday had taken legal action against Acacia Research Corp and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc, accusing them of colluding with Nokia to extract and extort exorbitant revenues unfairly from Apple.

Acacia is a traded patent licensing firm based in Newport Beach, California. One of its subsidiaries sued Apple for patent infringement and was awarded $22 million by a Texas jury in September.

Similarly, Conversant, which claims to own thousands of patents, announced last week that a Silicon Valley jury had awarded one of its units a $7.3 million settlement in an infringement case against Apple involving two smartphone patents.