Struggling Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has settled its patent
dispute with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion in return for payments,
as it tries to exploit its trove of technology patents to boost its
dire finances.
Terms of the agreement were confidential, but Nokia
said on Friday it included a one-time payment to be booked in the fourth
quarter, as well as ongoing fees, all to be paid by RIM.
Nokia is
one of the industry's top patent holders, along with Qualcomm and
Ericsson, having invested 45 billion euros in mobile research and
development over the past two decades.
It has been trying to make
use of that legacy to ensure its survival as it battles to recover
ground lost in the lucrative smartphone market to the likes of Apple and
Samsung.
With sales and cash reserves falling and its credit
rating cut to junk over the past year, Nokia in October announced a 750
million euros convertible bond to help fund its fightback.
The
agreement with RIM settles all existing patent litigation between the
two companies, Nokia said, adding similar disputes with HTC Corp and
ViewSonic still stood.
"This agreement demonstrates Nokia's
industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further
licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market," said Paul
Melin, Nokia's chief intellectual property officer.
Nokia has earned around 500 million euros a year from patent royalties in key areas of mobile telephony.
Some analysts have said it could earn hundreds of millions more if it can negotiate with more companies successfully.
They
estimated its June 2011 settlement with Apple was worth hundreds of
millions of euros, but said the RIM agreement was likely worth much less
because of lower BlackBerry sales.
"Not hundreds of millions,"
said Martin Nilsson, analyst at Handelsbanken, when asked for an
estimate on the settlement. He added the news was positive, if not
surprising.
"More or less, when companies like Ericsson, Qualcomm or Nokia go into negotiations, they end up net winners."
Nokia
shares fell 3 percent to 3.07 euros by 1000 GMT. They have been
retreating in the past few sessions from their strong surge of the past
month.
They rose around 40 percent over the month through Tuesday
on speculation its new Lumia smartphones were selling well. Analysts
have warned the phones appeared sold out in many stores as supplies were
short to begin with.
© Thomson Reuters 2012