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Apple issued a brief statement today announcing that they’re responding to Nokia’s lawsuit by launching one of their own. Fight fire with fire, I (and, apparently, Apple) always say. Apple is claiming in the countersuit that Nokia is infringing upon 13 Apple patents. The company claimed back in October that it planned to “vigorously” defend itself against Nokia’s lawsuit, and I guess this is one way to do that.

As a reminder, Nokia claims in their lawsuit that Apple’s iPhone infringes upon multiple cellular and Wi-Fi patents which Nokia apparently owns. Nokia has noted that approximately 40 other technology-related companies—apparently including “virtually all the leading mobile device vendors”—have licensed the intellectual property but that Apple refused to agree to appropriate licensing terms.

Bruce Sewell, Apple’s General Counsel and senior vice president, responded thusly: “Other companies must compete with us by inventing their own technologies, not just by stealing ours,” said Bruce Sewell, Apple’s General Counsel and senior vice president.

Now them’s fightin’ words, Bruce. The gloves are off, and at least one team’s going to get a five minute major for this one. We’ll be keeping an eye on this one to see how it turns out.