Nokia Wins Patent War, Apple to Pay Huge Settlement

By Juli | June 15, 2011 | 3 comments

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Nearly two years ago, Nokia filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the iPhone violated 10 patents owned by Nokia, from security and wireless data transmission, to speech coding.

On Tuesday, Nokia won that patent case and announced that Apple has agreed to pay a one-time settlement and continuous licensing fees for the patents that Nokia owns. According to the terms of the agreement, both companies will end all patent litigation between them, withdrawing their infringement complaints to the US International Trade Commission.

“We are very pleased to have apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees,” wrote Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Nokia. “This settlement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus further on licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market.”

The details of the agreement have not been revealed, but surely this will boost Nokia’s dwindling profitability, caused by a continually diminishing smartphone market share.

This is a huge win for Nokia, whose patent claims are undoubtedly strengthened with Apple’s support. Nokia may now further pursue other smartphone and tablet vendors distributing Android devices, and could potentially earn more revenue from license agreements than from selling Nokia devices. Nokia has already filed suits against Sharp, LG, Samsung, and Toshiba.

As for Apple, it’s legal issues with other patent holding rivals are not over. Apple has pending lawsuits with Samsung and HTC, and is currently embroiled in a dispute with patent troll Lodsys.

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Anonymous

Sorry, but you’re an idiot.

Nokia settled the case on the terms Apple offered at the beginning – to pay the standard license fee Nokia charges all other OEM’s for the same technology. since Nokia never let Apple pay anything, asking for a uniquely higher rate for the iPhone, yes of course there is a substantial lump sum that Apple will pay now for all iPhones going back 4 years. Apple certainly already set that cash aside accounting-wise all these years.

and Nokia did not get the bonus patent cross-licensing it wanted from Apple.

next time think and check facts before you swallow a press release hook, line, and sinker like you do here.

the reason Elop settled this hopeless case the old Nokia regime started is that Nokia is getting desperate for cash. look at their financials …
Anonymous

Sorry, but you’re an idiot.

Nokia settled the case on the terms Apple offered at the beginning – to pay the standard license fee Nokia charges all other OEM’s for the same technology. since Nokia never let Apple pay anything, asking for a uniquely higher rate for the iPhone, yes of course there is a substantial lump sum that Apple will pay now for all iPhones going back 4 years. Apple certainly already set that cash aside accounting-wise all these years.

and Nokia did not get the bonus patent cross-licensing it wanted from Apple.

next time think and check facts before you swallow a press release hook, line, and sinker like you do here.

the reason Elop settled this hopeless case the old Nokia regime started is that Nokia is getting desperate for cash. look at their financials …
Juli Clover

Thank you for your kind and insightful criticism. I am not privy to the inner workings of the settlement between Nokia and Apple as you seem to be, and while I did do plenty of research before writing what I wrote, I did not come across anything similar to what you have said. With thousands of stories and sites out there, it is easy to miss one or two things. Such information was not present in Nokia’s press release. And in fact, I see nothing in what I did write that is untrue or not inline with what you yourself have said.