Nokia settled its patent dispute with Apple for over $2B
Now that Nokia has pried itself from Microsoft’s clutches and is operating as an independent company again, it’s starting to assert itself in terms of its patent property. Late last year in December, we reported that Nokia launched a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple for violating 32 patents held by the Finnish company.
That lawsuit was settled back in May, but both companies have declined to comment on how the dispute was settled. Now that Nokia’s quarterly financial results have been revealed, we get a better idea of what that lawsuit cost Apple.
Second, we got a substantial upfront cash payment of €1.7 billion from Apple, strengthening further our cash position. As said earlier, our plans is to provide more details on the intended use of cash in conjunction with our Q3 earnings.
Third, instead of a simple patent licensing agreement, we have agreed on a more extensive business collaboration with Apple, providing potential for a meaningful uplift in our IP Routing, Optical Networks and Digital Health business units over time. Hence, the value of the agreement will be reflected partly as patent licensing net sales in Nokia Technologies, and partly as net sales in other Nokia business groups.
The second part of that statement is the important part, as Apple has agreed to license patents from Nokia for a variety of products, which means another source of revenue stream for Nokia as a company. That’s good news on top of good news, as the company reported higher than expected profits.
The Nokia 6 has been available for pre-order in the US since June and the upcoming Nokia 8 is expected to be a flagship-tier device sporting a Snapdragon 835 processor with 4/6/8GB RAM variants.