May 5, 2021
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Nokia has reportedly reached a “multi-year, multi-technology patent cross-license agreement” with PC maker, Lenovo. As part of the deal, Lenovo will be making a net balancing payment to Nokia and both parties will be dropping all pending patent litigation and other proceedings against one another.
Litigation between the parties started in 2019, when Nokia filed lawsuits against Lenovo in various countries over alleged infringements of 20 patents in relation to the video compression standard H.264. The matter became so heated that a Munich court, after ruling that Lenovo infringed one of Nokia’s patents, ordered a recall of products from retailers. Lenovo appealed the decision, claiming that Nokia had an obligation to license its technology according to FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.
The mood has shifted since the parties signed the deal, with both parties’ top executives saying that they “appreciate, and very much respect” each other and that the “global accord struck will enable future collaboration between [the] companies for the benefit of customers worldwide.”
Authors: Shadi Varkiani and Scott Kerr
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