Nokia Corp. and Apple Inc. have settled long-running intellectual property disputes and agreed to a multi-year patent license, moving from courtroom foes to business partners.
Financial details of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Nokia will receive an up-front cash payment from Apple, with additional revenue during the term of the agreement.
The companies said Tuesday that Nokia will provide certain network infrastructure products and services to Apple while Apple will resume carrying Nokia digital health products in Apple retail and online stores. They will also jointly explore future collaboration in digital health initiatives.
“This is a meaningful agreement between Nokia and Apple,” said Maria Varsellona, Chief Legal Officer at Nokia, responsible for Nokia’s patent licensing business.
“It moves our relationship with Apple from being adversaries in court to business partners working for the benefit of our customers.”
At the end of last year Nokia confirmed it had filed actions in 11 countries in total, saying Apple violated 40 of its patents covering technologies such as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding.
At the same time, Apple filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, arguing that Nokia excluded some patents from that agreement and transferred them to third-party companies “to be used for extorting excessive royalties” from Apple. It asked the court to award damages and rule that Nokia breached its contract.
