14 DAY TRIAL // Soon, Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia will depart from its Devices & Services business, which will become part of Microsoft, yet the company claims that it will remain committed to standard essential patents it holds in the wireless segment even after the transaction is completed.
The company has one of the largest wireless patents portfolios in the world, as it has developed many fundamental technologies over the past decades.
So far, Nokia has decided to license these standard essential patents (SEPs) on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, and it seems that things won’t change after the Microsoft deal is completed.
In fact, the company has made it clear in a new statement on its website that it is still committed to these patents and to licensing them on the same FRAND terms as before.
For those out of the loop, we should note that the Finnish mobile maker will continue to use said wireless patents even after the Devices & Services business becomes part of Microsoft.
Many mobile phone makers out there have expressed fears that the company could plan on increasing licensing fees after the deal is done, given that it will no longer be a phone maker, and that it will no longer have cross-patent agreements with other companies.
According to Nokia, however, this is not the case. The handset vendor claims that it will continue to honor its FRAND undertakings in the future, and that it is committed to FRAND licensing principles.
Furthermore, Nokia says that it does not plan on making changes to its licensing program, and that it will not modify the current royalty terms and practices either.
According to the handset vendor, the company has provided this statement to the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China in order to ensure that its transaction with Microsoft gets through. You can read it entirely below.
The company managed to receive approval for the deal, though it remains to be seen whether other countries also give it the green light. At the moment, the transaction is still under scrutiny in markets such as South Korea, the homeland of Samsung.
Nokia and Microsoft announced back on September 3, 2013, that substantially all of Nokia’s Devices & Services business would be sold to Microsoft, yet the deal hasn’t been closed as of now, since it hasn’t received all the necessary regulatory approvals.
However, earlier this month, the two companies said that they were expecting for the transaction to be completed before the end of this month.