Nokia and Blackberry-maker RIM settle over patents

AP PHOTO/LEHTIKUVA, JUSSI NUKARI

HELSINKI—Finnish mobile giant Nokia said on Friday it was withdrawing all its lawsuits against Blackberry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) after reaching an agreement on patent licensing.

Last month Nokia filed lawsuits in the United States, Britain and Canada against RIM claiming it had breached an agreement on using Nokia patents on WLAN local area network technology.

“We are very pleased to have resolved our patent licensing issues with RIM and reached this new agreement, while maintaining Nokia’s ability to protect our unique product differentiation,” said Paul Melin, chief intellectual property officer at Nokia, in a statement.

The Finnish company said the agreement includes a one-time payment and on-going payments, all from RIM to Nokia, with the specific terms confidential.

The dispute arose from different interpretations of which technologies were covered by a 2003 licensing deal that allows RIM to use Nokia’s patented technology.

RIM had sought arbitration in 2011 to get the deal modified, but a Swedish court ruled in November it was in breach of contract and could not use the technology without reaching an agreement with Nokia.

Nokia may have lost the title as the top-selling mobile phone maker, but the Finnish company holds patents to over 10,000 types of technology after having invested approximately 45 billion euros ($60 billion) in research and development over the past two decades.

RIM has also seen its market share eroded by competition from Apple’s iPhone and devices powered by Google’s Android system