Nokia Tries to Ban Most BlackBerries

Nokia has asked a California judge for an order banning the sale of any BlackBerry phone with wireless LAN capabilities—which is basically all of them, ComputerWorld reports. A Swedish arbiter has ruled that RIM has breached its contract over the use of Nokia's wireless patents, Nokia announced today, and since the US and Sweden are both signatories to the 1958 New York Convention on international arbitration, Nokia is arguing the phones should be banned here as well.

Nokia has filed similar cases in Britain and in Canada—Research in Motion's home country. "If a sales ban was imposed it would be a massive blow for RIM," one analyst tells Reuters, noting that the beleaguered company is in the middle of an attempted turnaround with its BlackBerry 10 operating system. (More BlackBerry stories.)