In what should certainly be termed as ‘landmark’ in our ongoing technology business landscape, Apple and Nokia — two of the biggest names in Telecom equipment manufacturers — have announced that they have settled all their IP related litigation and have agreed a new multi-year patent license agreement.
Under the new business collaboration agreement, Nokia will provide network infrastructure services to Apple, while Apple will resume selling Nokia health products, which were previously sold under the Withings brand.
Apple had earlier pulled Withings products from its online and retail stores in December 2016, days after Nokia sued the company for patent infringement.
In a statement, Maria Varsellona, Chief Legal Officer at Nokia, responsible for Nokia’s patent licensing business, said,
This is a meaningful agreement between Nokia and Apple. It moves our relationship with Apple from being adversaries in court to business partners working for the benefit of our customers.
Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, said,
We are pleased with this resolution of our dispute and we look forward to expanding our business relationship with Nokia.
Basil Alwan, President of Nokia’s IP/Optical Networks business, said,
This agreement will strengthen our collaboration. We look forward to supporting Apple.
While details of the licensing agreement remains confidential, Nokia said it will receive an up-front cash payment from Apple, as well as additional revenues. The companies said in a joint press release that they are also “exploring future collaboration in digital health initiatives.”
Due to the up-front cash payment from Apple, Nokia intends to provide a comprehensive update of its capital structure optimization program in conjunction with its third quarter 2017 results.
The value of the agreement will be reflected partially as patent licensing net sales in Nokia Technologies and partially as net sales in other Nokia business groups.
Nokia will continue to follow its existing practices for disclosing patent licensing revenue in its quarterly announcements and expects that revenues for the agreement will start to be recognized in the second quarter of 2017, including an element of non-recurring catch-up revenue.
Earlier this year, Nokia filed multiple lawsuits against the latter for allegedly infringing on nearly 32 mobile patents. The patents lawsuits span over technologies including display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets, and video coding, among others.
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