Hasta La Gadget!

In an odd parallel to the case of the Gizmodo blogger who obtained a lost (or stolen) Apple iPhone 4, Nokia has asked Russian police to help it find an unreleased N8 phone that Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin has written about.

In a blog post earlier this year, Murtazin wrote about the Nokia N8, an unreleased phone that (via translation) Murtazin called possibly the “disappointment of the year”. The post also included pictures of the phone, which Nokia cited as evidence that Murtazin had one in his possession.

Murtazin writes for Mobile-Review.com, but also apparently is a consultant for other mobile-phone companies, which worried Nokia.

“With regard to the idea that this action is in any way related to Mr.
Murtazin’s recent criticisms of the company, we have to emphasise that
Nokia takes all matters relating to the security of its products,
confidential and proprietary information and intellectual property very
seriously,” Nokia wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “We have asked Mr. Murtazin for the return of all Nokia
property in his possession. As he has declined to reply, we asked the
Russian authorities to assist us. To be clear, we have no issue with
individuals voicing their opinions about our company and our products.
At Nokia, we pride ourselves on being an open and transparent company.
However, the protection of our intellectual property is something we
take very seriously.”

Murtazin, for his part, professed ignorance of exactly what piece of property Nokia wanted returned. “In particular, the
last letter from Nokia which I received, indeed, was the return of
certain property, which was not specified,” he said, via a translated blog post.“I asked to clarify what Nokia believes the property
of the company and asked a number of other issues. No answer so far.”

Credit to Computerworld and AllThingsD.