Apple agrees to pay licensing fee for Nokia patents
14 Jun 2011
Apple has agreed to license wireless phone patents owned by Nokia that were at the centre of a long-running legal dispute between the two companies.
The deal would bring about the settlement of all patent litigation between Nokia and Apple, and the two would withdraw their respective complaints with the US International Trade Commission.
Nokia said that under the terms of the settlement, Apple would pay it an undisclosed one-time fee and on-going royalties.
"We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees," Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Nokia, said in a statement. "This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market."
The legal stand-off started in October 2009 with Nokia suing Apple for over 10 wireless handset patents the Finnish phone maker said it owned. The 10 patents, which Apple did not license, are believe to be related to making phones able to run on GSM, 3G, and Wi-Fi networks.
They include patents on wireless data, speech coding, security, and encryption, according to Nokia.
