Apple and Nokia have agreed to settle all their patent disputes, with the latter being the clear winner right now. Apple agreed to pay Nokia a one-time up-front cash payment and entered into a multi-year patent license with the company earlier this year. At the time, we had no idea how much the iPhone maker paid, but Nokia’s most recent quarterly earnings revealed that sum to be close to $2 billion.
Nokia mentioned in its financial results for the June quarter that it had increased cash inflow following an “up-front cash payment of approximately EUR 1.7 billion, part of which was recognized in the second quarter 2017 results.”
That’s the $2 billion that must have come from Apple, although the document did not mention Apple’s name. However, Nokiamob reached out to the firm, asking whether Apple did in fact pay $2 billion in May, and the Nokia PR team confirmed it.
That’s a huge win for Nokia, and quite possibly one of the highest settlements Apple has ever had to pay.
As for Apple, the company can’t just shake off Nokia technology from the iPhone, and its best product will continue to be a huge money maker for the Finnish company.
We’ll remind you that Nokia and Apple first inked a patent settlement six years ago. The financial details of that agreement are not known, but reports at the time said Apple would pay as much as €800 million to Nokia up-front, followed by royalties for all iPhone sales that would follow.
