Nokia and RIM settle patent dispute

21 Dec 2012

Nokia House, Nokia's global headquarters in Espoo, Finland

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has agreed on a patent-licencing deal with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM), which will see the two handset makers settle all existing patent litigation.

RIM will make a one-time and “on-going payments” to Nokia, but the financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.

The agreement with RIM will settle all existing patent litigation between the two companies, Nokia said. The disputes between the two companies saw Nokia launching legal action against RIM in the US, the UK and Canada last month. The action could have prevented RIM from manufacturing and selling devices that connect to Wi-Fi networks without first agreeing loyalties with Nokia.

In May, Nokia had also filed a separate patent suit against RIM in Germany, in which the Finnish company alleged that RIM infringed on a number of its patents.

These injunctions have now all been dropped.

“We are very pleased to have resolved our patent licensing issues with RIM and reached this new agreement, while maintaining Nokia’s ability to protect our unique product differentiation,” said Nokia’s, chief intellectual property officer Paul Melin in a statement.

“This agreement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market,” he added.

This week a report from market intelligence firm IHS iSuppli saw Samsung displacing Nokia to become the world’s top mobile brand in 2012. It was the first time in 14 years that Nokia didn’t top the list.

Carmel Doyle was a long-time reporter with Silicon Republic

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