US: Nokia-Apple patent suit settled for US$2b

Apple just spent US$2 billion from its coffers to get out of a legal fiasco with Nokia. A patent lawsuit was brought in between Apple and Nokia back in May, this year. However, neither of the two behemoths revealed any details nor did they leave any comment regarding the value of the settlement. The only information that came into the light was that the Cupertino-based tech giant had to pay a significant amount of money to the Finnish brand to end the dispute.

Recently reports have surfaced, specifically from Nokiamob, which say that the tech giant has announced that it has received a US$2 billion cash payment from Apple. However, no further details have been disclosed regarding the settlement. Considering the fact that it was a non-recurring catch-up revenue, people are left to wonder how will Nokia spend all that cash.

The recent lawsuit was the second high-profile patent fight between Nokia and Apple. It began last year when Nokia alleged that Apple has broken law on dozens of patents that Nokia owns including the patents from its subsidiaries, NSN and Alcatel-Lucent. Due to Nokia’s position and background in the phone market, a lot of smartphone makers had purchased the rights to the company’s patents for almost everything. Apple, in particular, has been relying on Nokia’s patents since the iPhone 3GS, which included, video coding, display, chipsets, UI, software, and antenna.

Apple and Nokia have had a licensing deal since 2011, but the former accused that the latter was seeking undue advantages, which led to their refusal to sign a new deal.

Full Content: Economic Times

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