Apple Licenses Nokia Patents, Ending Lawsuits

nokia
Reuters and Engadget report that Nokia has entered into a patent license agreement with Apple. From the press release:

Nokia announced that it has signed a patent license agreement with Apple. The agreement will result in settlement of all patent litigation between the companies, including the withdrawal by Nokia and Apple of their respective complaints to the US International Trade Commission.

The financial structure of the agreement consists of a one-time payment payable by Apple and on-going royalties to be paid by Apple to Nokia for the term of the agreement. The specific terms of the contract are confidential.

Nokia first filed a patent suit against Apple in October 2009 and the dispute has escalated since then with the two companies filing multiple new claims against each other. This should end one of the Apple's biggest patent disputes, but many others remain active.

While FOSS Patents sees this as a clear win for Nokia, they also suggest it may help Apple a bit as Android manufacturers are likely to also be affected.

Nokia emerges victorious, but this is a sweet defeat for Apple because its competitors -- especially those building Android-based devices -- will also have to pay Nokia, and most if not all of them will likely have to pay more on a per-unit basis because they don't bring as much intellectual property to the table as Apple definitely did.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
ipad pro 2024

Gurman: New iPad Pro and MacBook Pro Models With M5 Chips to Launch Later This Year

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:06 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPad Pro models with the M5 chip will "launch this year," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the new iPad Pro models have progressed to an "advanced testing" stage, and he expects mass production of the devices to begin in the second half of this year. If that timeframe is met, the new iPad Pro models could launch...

Top Rated Comments

Bonte Avatar
180 months ago
If MS buys Nokia Apple would not need to pay a fee, maybe something is up.

Apple always wanted to pay, the dispute was about the price of the royalties.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
twilson Avatar
180 months ago
I am glad we agree that Apple "borrowed" a lot of Nokia creations and not vice versa. It is indicative that cross-licensing agreement is not part of this deal. Apparently Nokia did not find anything they would need to patent from Apple.

Stop all the blind trolling, and open your eyes. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE A PHONE USING THE GSM STANDARD WITHOUT NEEDING TO LICENSE NOKIA'S PATENTS IN QUESTION!

That's why Nokia MUST offer "Fair, Reasonable and NON-DISCRIMNATORY" terms To these patents (something they were trying to avoid when licensing to Apple).
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
inkswamp Avatar
180 months ago
Yes, Apple's patents were so strong that they (Apple) decided to pay Nokia. Did I get it right?

Not quite but then again, you're not really trying very hard. The first step is to follow these things from the start. You haven't been following this story, have you?

Here's the basic rundown. Nokia wanted to charge Apple exorbitant fees for the use of some patents, much more than they were charging other licensees. Apple demanded that they charge a fair price and refused to pay. Nokia sues, Apple countersues... and then suddenly all lawsuits are gone and Apple is licensing Nokia's patents.

Now logically, what do you think happened behind-the-scenes? This probably isn't a win for either side. Nokia probably caved on their fees and Apple agreed to license the patents at a fair price and drop their counter-suits.

You have a better take on this? I doubt it but I'd love to hear it.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NoNothing Avatar
180 months ago
Ahhh... The Apple hater...

OK, so Apple therefore admitted that they were wrong. Now lets hear from LTDs of this forum how they are going to spin this. They have been claiming all along that Apple was the "innovator" here and Nokia was in the wrong.

I don't think anyone said that. Apple just wanted the same "fair and reasonable" rates others got. I don't think anybody assumed Apple was not going to pay for the use of the tech.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NoNothing Avatar
180 months ago
Show us the money!!!

It appears that there has never been the case where Apple would be able to sue someone in court for use of their patent and win. Their patents usually get invalidated by courts because of prior arts or being too obvious.

I can show you one that proves you 100% wrong.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
teknishn Avatar
180 months ago
And you know this because

Try actually reading the lawsuits. Simple case of Apple needing to license gsm patents that Nokia is legally obligated to license at fair price. Apple simply didn't want to pay more than HTC, Samsung, Motorola etc etc. The issue has been resolved in a pretty obvious manner. Sometimes it takes a lot of arm waving to get the right deal done.... Such as this case. End of the day it's really business as usual.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)