In an earnings call this week, Nokia has revealed that Apple paid the company 2 billion dollars to settle ongoing patent disputes. The companies will share patents as part of the licensing agreement.
Apple paid Nokia 2 billion dollars to settle patent disputes between the companies. Back in May, both companies agreed to drop lawsuits and made a multi-year patent exchange agreement. However, the specifics of that agreement weren’t disclosed at the moment.
In an earnings call this week, Nokia revealed that the company received $2 billion in cash, as part of the agreement. The company also gave more details on how it will co-operate with Apple in the future.
Nokia says the collaboration with Apple will help strengthen its networking and digital health business units. Over time, the royalties received from Apple, in terms of patent licensing sales, will be reflected in its future earnings. How the company plans to utilize the $2 billion cash will be disclosed in next quarter’s earnings call.
Last year, Nokia sued Apple in the US and Europe for patent infringement. As a result, Apple fought back and launched its own lawsuit against the company; many healthcare products from Withings, a Nokia company, were removed from Apple’s web store.
This wasn’t the first time the two companies were in legal battles with each other. It’s always good for consumers when big companies agree to share their expertise instead of fighting. It will be interesting to see how the agreement plays out for Nokia financially, in its post-Microsoft era.
Source: Nokia (PDF) | Original image via Brian Turner / Flickr
