Lenovo settles patent agreement with Nokia
After Samsung, Lenovo followed a patent cross-licensing agreement with Nokia. Though unspecified, Jenni Lukander, President of Nokia Technologies, said that the newly signed agreement with Lenovo reflects the company’s decades-long investments in R&D and contributions to cellular and multimedia standards.
The agreement will also conclude all of Nokia’s pending patent litigation and other proceedings with Lenovo, in terms that the Chinese giant will make net balancing payments to the Finnish corporation.
Nokia and Lenovo have a long standing battle with patent disputes spanning over two years in four countries — USA, Brazil, India, and Germany. Nokia sued Lenovo for alleged patent infringement of 20 video coding patents, which the Chinese giant countersued in California. Last year, however, the German court ruled in favor of Nokia, ordering a ban of Lenovo products in Germany.
“Our agreement with Nokia reflects the value of both Nokia’s technology leadership and Lenovo’s continued investment in 5G innovation. The global accord struck will enable future collaboration between our companies for the benefit of customers worldwide.” said John Mulgrew, Chief Intellectual Property Officer of Lenovo, in a press release.
Nokia, once a world leader in consumer electronics, made significant contributions in many of the known technologies today. According to Nokia, they have invested more than €129 billion on its R&D in over two decades, allowing the company to create a business out of technology licensing even today.
Currently, Nokia Technologies, a Nokia division that develops Nokia consumer products and licenses its technology — including the Nokia brand, holds around 20,000 patent families. About 3,500 of which are essential to 5G.
Last month, Nokia announced that it’s planning to cut up to 10,000 jobs to invest more on its R&D. This makes sense as most of Nokia’s patents, though still essential for today’s technology, will most certainly lose its value as we slowly move to the newer era of technological advancements.
Source: Nokia Corporation
