May 21, 2019
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As reported by Reuters, German car manufacturer Daimler has filed a complaint with the European Union’s antitrust regulator regarding Nokia's car communications patents. The automaker stated that it is seeking “clarification on how essential patents for telecommunications standards are to be licensed in the automotive industry.”
Bury, a German electronics company, has filed a similar complaint, alleging that Nokia refuses to grant licenses for individual mobile communications components in automobiles and instead insists on “indirect licensing of the entire vehicle”, for which Nokia does not hold a patent.
With telecom technology becoming increasingly prevalent in cars, through features such as vehicle-to-vehicle communications, tensions between these two sectors are expected to rise. Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant responded to Daimler’s complaint, stating that “Daimler has resisted taking a license to the Nokia inventions it is already using.”
A spokesperson for the regulator reportedly confirmed that the Commission was in the process of “assessing” the complaint.
Authors: Sarah Stothart and Sam Galway
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