Apple Settles Patent Suit With Payments to Nokia

[JMcEntegart]

Nokia has announced the end of its patent litigation with Apple and revealed that Apple will enter into a patent licensing agreement with the Espoo-based company.

Apple Settles Patent Suit With Payments to Nokia : Read more

 

[makaveli316]

“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.”

That made my day, now i guess a great divine power exists somewhere above the clouds and maybe her name is Karma and she's a bitch.

 

[Silmarunya]

[citation][nom]makaveli316[/nom]“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.”That made my day, now i guess a great divine power exists somewhere above the clouds and maybe her name is Karma and she's a bitch.[/citation]

Is Apple really the loser here? They paid a (by Apple standards) trivial sum for years of patent infringement. And not just minor patents, some of these were/are essential to the iPhone's success.

Still, Nokia can use some nice hard cash while we all wait for Nokia WP7 devices (which I will buy to replace my by then aged Android phone). After all, Nokia build quality combined with a modern and responsive OS = smartphone heaven.

Android is nice, but fragmentation and decidedly mediocre mid-end handsets ruin the experience a bit. The high end is absolutely divine, the mid end sure isn't atm.

Apple? Locked down, insecure, limited OS on an underpowered handset that sells for way too much.

WP7? Not perfect, but consistent and reliable since the Mango update fixed the slow browser. And if they manage to include all of the Ovi Apps, they'll have a selection to be proud of.

 

[Geofram]

[citation]WP7? Not perfect[/citation]

understatement.

 

[back_by_demand]

Settling out of court seems to be Apples way of dealing with everything in business.
A few quick sums can show you the process.

A = Income from stealing ideas
B = Amount of time before lawsuits force a settlement
C = Cost of out of court settlement

If A x B => C then steal it and incorporate into the next hardware or software rollout.
If A x B < C then decry the technology as flawed and ask everyone to stop using it.

 

[audioee]

I think it is time that all the smartphone manufacturers set up a patent pool that is open to any one to buy into for some reasonable fee per phone. Every manufacturer pays into the pool and every patent holder gets a cut of the proceeds. This patent pool should contain all feature related patents to smartphones, 3G, 4G, Wifi, touch screen, gestures, email push, etc. This would definitely curb all these patent lawsuits and counter suits. As new patents get granted, the holder gets exclusivity for some set amount of time then it becomes open to the rest of the pool to use. As features become less important or replaced the patents covering those features will cost less to use until the patent expires, then they are free to use.

 

[Silmarunya]

[citation][nom]audioee[/nom]I think it is time that all the smartphone manufacturers set up a patent pool that is open to any one to buy into for some reasonable fee per phone. Every manufacturer pays into the pool and every patent holder gets a cut of the proceeds. This patent pool should contain all feature related patents to smartphones, 3G, 4G, Wifi, touch screen, gestures, email push, etc. This would definitely curb all these patent lawsuits and counter suits. As new patents get granted, the holder gets exclusivity for some set amount of time then it becomes open to the rest of the pool to use. As features become less important or replaced the patents covering those features will cost less to use until the patent expires, then they are free to use.[/citation]

Something highly similar to that exists - when GSM was created, all related companies agreed to cross license their patents at reasonable rates and establish a fair system of licensing terms.

The only major handset maker that isn't a member of it is... Apple. They were too late to be a founding member and never tried to join as a new member either (unlike other mainly Asian late arrivals).

So guess what happened? Apple refuses to share any of its patents and frequently infringes on other's patents only to settle in/out of court afterwards if keeping it quiet or stomping over the patent holder if it's small enough.

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]Silmarunya[/nom]Is Apple really the loser here? They paid a (by Apple standards) trivial sum for years of patent infringement.[/citation]

Considering the information is classed confidential likely by the request of Apple as part of the agreement. They don't want more bad publicity so they can still fool the less enlightened customers into believing they are the inventors of everything - From the diapers to the coffin used in the end. I don't think the sum is trivial!

 

[Guest]

Some of the comments are mis-informed. Remember, the original issue was that Apple refused the original licensing terms Nokia wanted because they were not FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms. The speculation was that Nokia not only wanted royalty but also access to Apple UI patents. Apple refused and built the iPhone anyway and Nokia sued.

Apple is paying probably paying the normal licensing fee that Nokia charges for all phone manufacturers. I also bet that Nokia is NOT getting access to Apple's UI patents. All in all, there is no loser or winner here. Just business as usual.

 

[amabhy]

1. Patent iName product
2. Wait until Apple infringes
3. Sue
4. Profit massive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111one

 

[ericburnby]

^ This.

Apple did license some patents to Nokia as well, but not as many as Nokia wanted.

And there are winners and losers. Apple and Nokia are both winners. Apple gets a locked-in price for using patents in the long term. Nokia, who is now leveraging their patents has a precedent case set with Apple which gives them more ammo to get additional license fees from other smartphone manufacturers. I predict this will cost others as well, with Nokia reaping the benefits.

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]tidalblitz[/nom]the speculation was[/citation]
That's the word right there, speculation, you have just unleashed a statement which initially relies on the reader taking as canon truth something that is based entirely on hearsay, inuendo and hyperbole.
Stick with the facts.
If you are not guilty you don't settle out of court ever, you settle when it makes profitable business sense to make your guilt go away with what is essentially a legal bribe.

As it is a civil case this happens all the time, if however the case had been brought before criminal court for perhaps something like industrial espionage then there wouldn't be any shady backroom deals, the courts would prosecute to a clear guilty/not guilt conclusion.

If Apple managed to corner a market with stolen technology and after fines had made $1 billion that should yeald some hefty jail time for someone and a court ruling that the stolen technology be stripped from Apple products. If they want to have all this funky cool stuff they should invest$30 billion of their own money in R&D and invent it themselves.

People say the patent system is broken, no it isn't, the legal system is broken. A few high profile technology people in Orange jumpsuits rubbing shoulders with murderers and rapists in a Federal supermax and you will see this whole sorry affair of high value IP theft drop away to nothing - Then you will see who the TRUE innovators are.

 

[rohitbaran]

This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market.

You know what, you ditched Symbian. MS Windows ain't gonna get you any licenses.

 

[ericburnby]

You should change your name from back_by_demand to back_with_the_same_old_bullshit.

You accuse someone of "speculation" then go on with your own BS story which is all just your opinion anyway.

People settle out of court all the time, and it doesnt mean you are guilty as your blanket statement would imply. Make your guilt go away? Why would anyone feel "guilty" about performing normal business practices? Your bias is obvious.

 

[Apple Troll Master]

Eric-got-burned-by apple is still sad they didn't like his app at the apple convention. Otherwise he would be in the sun, forgetting all about tom's hardware or maybe they offered him a few hundred dollars for it. Either way defend them all you want. Just let me know when Light peak will have real use...since their is nothing that can utilize that type of bandwidth on the market. When there is pc motherboards will host it by then too. BURN! B!

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]rohitbaran[/nom]You know what, you ditched Symbian. MS Windows ain't gonna get you any licenses.[/citation]
Yes cause software is the only patents Nokia has

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]That's the word right there, speculation, you have just unleashed a statement which initially relies on the reader taking as canon truth something that is based entirely on hearsay, inuendo and hyperbole.Stick with the facts.If you are not guilty you don't settle out of court ever, you settle when it makes profitable business sense to make your guilt go away with what is essentially a legal bribe.As it is a civil case this happens all the time, if however the case had been brought before criminal court for perhaps something like industrial espionage then there wouldn't be any shady backroom deals, the courts would prosecute to a clear guilty/not guilt conclusion.If Apple managed to corner a market with stolen technology and after fines had made $1 billion that should yeald some hefty jail time for someone and a court ruling that the stolen technology be stripped from Apple products. If they want to have all this funky cool stuff they should invest$30 billion of their own money in R&D and invent it themselves.People say the patent system is broken, no it isn't, the legal system is broken. A few high profile technology people in Orange jumpsuits rubbing shoulders with murderers and rapists in a Federal supermax and you will see this whole sorry affair of high value IP theft drop away to nothing - Then you will see who the TRUE innovators are.[/citation]

here is one patent.

icons with round edges.

tell me the patent system isnt broken when something like THAT can get a patent
people patent the OBVIOUS things that no sane person would patent...

this isnt the days where patents were engineering feats, its crap like round edges on an icon, and you can bet that a front faceing camera was patented, a camera in the phone was patented, the type of hole you use to let noise in and out of the phone.

and apple also attempted to patent gestures, things that was in pc programs YEARS before apple used them in the phone.

 

[lucky015]

Once again 2 companies devoid of innovation fighting over patents...

Another day, Another patient dispute in a system that should not exist the way it is in the first place.

 

[kikireeki]

Hopefully the settlement money will help Nokia stay alive for an extra year.

 

[fir_ser]

This should compensate for Nokia the declining sales.