A global telecommunications company claims Reddit has infringed on its patents, the social media company disclosed on Tuesday.
Reddit says that Nokia Technologies is making the infringement claim on certain patents, according to updated filings related to Reddit's upcoming IPO. However, it's unclear if Nokia has officially filed a lawsuit against Reddit related to the patent claims, as well as which specific patents are at stake.
Nokia "sent us a letter indicating they believed that Reddit infringes certain of their patents. We will evaluate their claims," the filing said.
Nokia Technologies is the intellectual property licensing division of Finnish telecommunications corporation Nokia.
"Nokia is seeking compensation for the use of (its) key inventions and will reinvest the royalties in the development of next-generation communication and multimedia technologies," the company told Reuters.
Nokia didn't respond to an inquiry from Bay Area Inno.
The Nokia Corporation is among the top patent holders for social media-related technology in Europe, according to Global Data, with 53 patents. IBM is at the top with 96 followed by Microsoft with 81, Avaya Holdings with 65 and Alphabet with 54.
Nokia holds many social media-related patents around the world, according to a search through Google's patent database.
Nokia Technologies appears to hold active patents for social media-related technologies going as far back as 2007, according to a Bay Area Inno search of Google Patents. The patents expire at various times between 2028 and 2032.
Among those patents are:
- Method and apparatus for generating a relevant social graph
- Communication channel indicators
- Privacy management of data
- Method and apparatus for providing a co-creation platform
- Method, apparatus or system for image processing
- Method and apparatus for preventing unauthorized use of media items
- Method and apparatus for managing location-based transactions
- Method and apparatus for secure shared personal map layer
Though not specially related to social media, Nokia holds another patent for an "apparatus with elastically transformable body" that resembles a flexible, wearable device that can be worn on a user's arm or wrist which transmits information via a wireless connection. That patent expires in 2033, according to Google Patents.
Reddit isn't known to be developing any flexible wearable devices, but there are other companies developing both flexible screens and alternative wearable devices. Among them are South San Francisco startup Wispr and China-based Nubia Technologies.
Nokia's infringement complaint isn't Reddit's only potential legal headache.
The FTC is reportedly investigating Reddit's AI-related data licensing practices, CNBC reported last week.
In February, Reddit announced a lucrative data agreement with Google which would allow the search giant to use Reddit's user data for AI training purposes.
On Monday, Reuters reported that a judge in New York ruled on Monday that lawsuits filed against both Reddit and Google-owned YouTube can proceed in a liability case related to a mass shooting in 2022 when a white supremacist killed 10 Black people during a rampage in a Buffalo grocery store.
