The two companies ended years of disputes

May 23, 2017 11:02 GMT  ·  By

Apple and Nokia have just reached a settlement to a five-month legal dispute over patent licensing practices. The dispute practically ended when Apple agreed to sign a multi-year license on intellectual property from Nokia.

Therefore, Apple will be required to pay patent royalties for the next few years, starting with a cash payment that should take effect in the second quarter of 2017, which ends this month. Obviously, financial details about the agreement were kept confidential.

The agreement reportedly extends beyond intellectual property, as Nokia will provide Apple with network infrastructure products and services. Apple will be required to restart selling health devices under the Withings brand, which were removed from shelves when the patent dispute started back in December. In addition, it seems that the two companies are exploring partnerships in the field of digital health products, according to AppleInsider.

Apple and Nokia will hold joined summits

"We are pleased with this resolution of our dispute and we look forward to expanding our business relationship with Nokia," said Apple COO Jeff Williams. Moreover, Apple and Nokia will hold regular summits between company executives to add more weight to the agreement.

The patent dispute started back in December when Apple sued Nokia and nine patent holding companies, for allegedly high revenues that the companies requested from Apple and other manufacturers.

At the time, Apple said that it would stop paying royalties to Nokia for patents related to technology used in iPhones and other products. As a response, Nokia sued Apple in up to 11 countries, accusing the former smartphone maker of violating a staggering number of 32 patents, related to chipsets, antennas, displays, video coding technology, and more.

Later, Nokia extended the number of lawsuits against Apple to 40 and the company even tried to block imports of certain Apple devices into the US. Fortunately, Apple finally solved its differences with Nokia, but the iPhone-maker is also facing lawsuits from other major tech companies, like Qualcomm or the Universal Secure Registry for Apple Pay platform.