Nokia has taken its current battle against Apple a legal step further with the news it has filed a complaint with the United States International Trade Commission (the ITC), suggesting its current lawsuit against Apple is not looking like reaching a settlement any time soon.

In a statement, Nokia says the complaint to the ITC alleges "that Apple infringes Nokia patents in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers".

The seven Nokia patents in the complaint are said to relate to "Nokia's pioneering innovations that are now being used by Apple to create key features in its products in the area of user interface, as well as camera, antenna and power management technologies".

"These patented technologies are important to Nokia's success as they allow better user experience, lower manufacturing costs, smaller size and longer battery life for Nokia products", says Nokia.

"Nokia has been the leading developer of many key technologies in small electronic devices", said Paul Melin, general manager, patent licensing at Nokia.

"This action is about protecting the results of such pioneering development.  While our litigation in Delaware is about Apple's attempt to free-ride on the back of Nokia investment in wireless standards, the ITC case filed today is about Apple's practice of building its business on Nokia's proprietary innovation".

Nokia's original suit against Apple was filed in October, naming ten patents that Apple allegedly refused to cough up for licence agreements over.

In response, in December Apple filed a countersuit against Nokia claiming that in fact, it's Nokia doing the infringing - to the tune of 13 Apple patents.