Nokia and Apple have settled an epic patent dispute dating back to October 2009, with Apple being forced to pay Nokia an undisclosed amount in licensing fees for all past and ongoing use of Nokia technology.
"We are happy that Apple has now agreed to become our newest licensee and make payments to Nokia," said Mark Durrant, communications director of Nokia. "I would not expect any direct effect on consumers as a result."
The long drawn-out case has involved dozens of patent infringement accusations across the U.S. and Europe. Nokia kicked off the patent war in 2009, accusing Apple of infringing on 10 patents; Apple quickly countersued. Since then both companies have each added dozens of patents to the case; most recently, in March, Nokia added five. For the full history, see patent blogger Florian Mueller's infographic below.
Mueller said the outcome is a "mixed blessing" for Apple. Although Apple has to pay Nokia an estimated eight-digit figure, the ruling also means Nokia could start imposing similar fees on Apple's competitors.
"Apple knows that Nokia is going to make similar demands in its dealings with other device makers, especially with dozens of Android device makers," he told PCMag. "If Nokia collects similar, or greater, royalties from Apples competitors it would make everyone's products more expensive. Apple has the healthy margins to offset the licensing fees."
Unlike Apple, Nokia, and virtually every other major tech company, Google's Android doesn't have the volume of patents needed to have leverage in any cross-licensing deals or disputes. Apple has thousands of patents, Nokia has more than 10,000 patent "families" (same patents, different jurisdictions), Microsoft has around 18,000 patents, and Google has about 600, mostly search-related.
"You need patents to enter into cross-license deals and come out of these negotiations on viable terms, with relatively low royalty rates." Mueller said.
Separately, Apple last week officially moved to intervene in the lawsuit that patent holder Lodsys is waging against iOS developers, arguing that Cupertino is fully licensed to use Lodsys technology and that going after iOS developers could adversely affect Apple's app business.