Apple said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it would defend itself against allegations made last week by Nokia Corp. The company stressed that it would respond to the world’s largest maker of mobile phones later.

“[Apple’s] response to the complaint is not yet due. The company intends to defend the case vigorously,” a statement by Apple with SEC reads.

Last week Nokia filed a complaint against Apple, accusing the later of patent infringement. The ten patents in suit relate to technologies fundamental to making devices which are compatible with one or more of the GSM, UMTS (3G WCDMA) and wireless LAN standards. The patents cover wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption and are infringed by all Apple iPhone models shipped since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, according to Nokia. While the move seems to be rather significant, it is strange that it took Nokia over two years to determine the infringement of its patents by Apple.

Nokia has not issued any actual demands to Apple publicly, but some analysts have indicated that Nokia may be trying to seek $1 billion in damages from Apple. Still, it is hardly possible that Nokia just wants to make Apple pay for radio-related patents, but the company may be interested in negotiations concerning general unification of mobile phones’ platforms.

Tags: Apple, Nokia, Business