Mobile manufacturers have been fighting it out in court rooms across the globe and just when we started to lose track of all the suits and counter suits, there is a settlement. Apple and Nokia have settled all their litigation bringing and end to a series of lawsuits and complaints to ITC. It’s no surprise that the camp that is cheering with a press release out is Nokia, after-all they have made Apple cough out a one time settlement fees and royalties for the term of the agreement (we aren’t sure how long that would be).
Specific details of the deal is confidential and all Nokia is talking about is the positive financial impact from the deal. We are interested in knowing if Apple would be paying Nokia per product sold or just a yearly / quarterly fees. The patent claim by Nokia covered not just iOS devices & iPods, but also the bestseller for Cupertino, the MacBook line-up. Apple surely had more to lose than gain by stretching the suit against one of the oldest and strongest companies in wireless technologies.
Last when we had heard, Apple had a trade ruling in its favor and Nokia responded with a new suit adding 6 more patents to the list. We wonder if Apple used the ITC ruling as a bargaining chip or its the Windows Phone deal with Microsoft that played a role? For a consumer such a settlement is largely good news, it enables innovation (increases cost as well?) and lets the manufacturer work on what they are best at!
There is still plenty of patent mess between smartphone players still remaining, everyone from HTC to Motorola is busy negotiating agreements and fighting suits. Lets hope to see a lot more deals go through in the near future.
We may never know what really conspired between these companies, but that doesn’t stop twitteratis from poking fun…
