Earlier in the week Samsung dropped a massive patent infringement case that has been rolling on between them and Apple over the course of 2012, ending months of legal cases and disruption to both tech brands. Today Nokia and RIM have followed suit, with the two companies coming to an agreement on patent issues.
RIM has agreed to a patent licensing agreement with Nokia that includes a one-off fee and on-going payments “all from RIM to Nokia.”
This agreement means that the two companies will drop all current patent litigation which has been going through European courts and the two companies will be able to work together in the future..
Nokia released a statement saying: “We are very pleased to have resolved our patent licensing issues with RIM,” and that “this agreement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market.”
The two firms have been having a spat over various patent legalities, but up until today a high profile court case has been avoided and now with RIM and Nokia sorting out their issues any there further action will be stopped.
With RIM launching its “phoenix from the flames” BlackBerry 10 operating system on January 30th, the company will be looking to avoid any unwanted hiccups whilst it focuses on its renewal and forward motion.
Nokia and RIM have had numerous legal spats over the years, but nearly 10 years ago the two companies agreed to cross-license essential patents in order to share various technologies in their products.
However, the two companies are now swiftly sorting out their issues and it’s business as usual from now on.