Nano-SIM wars continue with RIM launching scathing attack on Apple

The ongoing nano-SIM wars between Apple and a range of other smartphone manufacturers has taken a new turn. The Cupertino-based brand had sent a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to address the main concern of the critics of their proposal. The letter from Apple intended to remove any roadblock through an unequivocal commitment to grant royalty-free licenses to any Apple patents essential to the nano-SIM. This would be done provided that their proposal would be adopted as a standard and that all other patent holders would accept the same terms, in accordance with the principle of reciprocity. However, this proposal was immediately shot down by Nokia with the Finnish brand stating, “The principal issues remain the technical superiority of our proposal and that Apple's proposal does not meet the pre-agreed ETSI requirements. Apple's proposal for royalty free licensing seems no more than an attempt to devalue the intellectual property of others.” As per a report by SlashGear, Research in Motion have also jumped on the Apple-bashing bandwagon and have issued a letter to the ETSI stating that Apple is rigging the voting process for the approval of the proposed nano-SIM by pointing out that three Apple employees have re-registered their affiliation to weigh the vote to fall in favor of the Cupertino brand.

As per the letter by RIM, “Over the last few days we have observed a number of representatives from one company changing their affiliation over night” RIM wrote in the letter, submitted to the ETSI on Wednesday, “and registering to the meeting not representing their employer or any of their affiliates but representing a completely different company.” The letter states that three Apple employees from the UK have registered themselves of Bell Mobility, KT Corp. and SK Telekom. The letter goes on to read, “We kindly ask that neither shall a person of one company who is appointed to carry the votes of another company be entitled to cast a vote on behalf of that company, nor shall a person of one company who is registered in the place of a person from another company and appointed to cast a vote on behalf of that other company, be allowed to cast a vote on behalf of that company.”

From the looks of it, it appears that Apple may be using unfair means regarding their proposal for the nano-SIM. The voting for the new standard of SIM cards will be postponed to a minimum of 30 days as the brands have not yet come to an agreement, a blog post by Foss Patents reads.