Nokia Oyj won an almost two-year patent dispute with Apple Inc

Nokia Oyj won an
almost two-year patent dispute with Apple
Inc., as the world's largest mobile- phone
makers reached a settlement that awards a
one-time payment and royalties to the
Finnish handset maker.

The agreement will bolster the Devices &
Services unit's second-quarter profitability,
Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said in a
statement yesterday. The details of the
contract, under which Apple will pay Nokia
an undisclosed sum and royalties for the
term of the agreement, are confidential, the
Finnish company said.
The two mobile-phone makers have been in
litigation since October 2009, when Nokia
filed a lawsuit accusing Cupertino, California-
based Apple of infringing patents. The
Finnish company also demanded royalties
on the millions of iPhones sold since the
device's introduction in 2007. Nokia said in
March it has 46 patents asserted against
Apple in civil lawsuits and complaints lodged
with the U.S. International Trade
Commission.
"Nokia emerges as a clear winner from the
fight," Sami Sarkamies, analyst at Nordea
Bank AB in Helsinki, said in a note to clients
yesterday. The initial payment will likely be in
the range of hundreds of millions of euros
related to about 200 million Apple devices
delivered to date, Sarkamies said. Nokia
stock had lost more than three quarters of
its value since Apple introduced the iPhone
in June 2007.
"This frees up resources for both Apple and
Nokia," said Florian Mueller, a Munich-based
consultant and an opponent of software
patents. "Other companies whom Nokia will
ask to pay royalties will have to think very
hard whether to pay or pick a fight."
Nokia Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop is
readying a line of phones based on
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phone 7
operating system to replace the company's
own Symbian line, which is losing market
share to Apple's iPhone and Android
handsets based on Google Inc.'s Android
system.
"We're glad to put this behind us and get
back to focusing on our respective
businesses," said Apple spokesman Steve
Dowling.
In a statement yesterday, the Cupertino,
California-based company said that that
Nokia will have a license to some
technology, "but not the majority of the
innovations that make the iPhone unique."
Apple gets a license to some of Nokia's
patents, including ones that were deemed
essential to industry standards on mobile
phones.
As is the general practice in technology
industries, the royalty amount won't be
disclosed
Nokia's first claims covered technology for
wireless data, speech coding, security and
encryption. Subsequent claims asserted
rights to wiping gestures on a touchscreen
and on- device application stores, both of
which Nokia said it filed to patent more than
10 years before the iPhone launch.
The Finnish company also broadened its
claims to cover Apple's iPad and iPod Touch.