Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Apple and Nokia are settling their legal dispute out of court. The first time they did, it was back in 2011, after an iPhone-based legal case that started in the previous years. Back then, Apple ended up paying Nokia a huge chunk of money, believed to have amounted up to €800 million, as well as royalties for every iPhone that would be sold in the future.
The new settlement comes a lot faster this time around, only months after Nokia sued Apple again.
Apple announced on Tuesday that it settled all litigation with Nokia, and the two companies agreed to a multi-year patent license.
“This is a meaningful agreement between Nokia and Apple,” Nokia chief legal officer Maria Varsellona said. “It moves our relationship with Apple from being adversaries in court to business partners working for the benefit of our customers.”
“We are pleased with this resolution of our dispute, and we look forward to expanding our business relationship with Nokia,” Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams said.
Under the new agreement, Nokia will provide Apple network infrastructure product and services to Apple, while Apple will resume the sales of Nokia’s digital health products. Those products were removed from Apple stores after Nokia sued Apple last December.
Monetary details remain confidential, but it looks like Apple will, once again, pay an “up-front cash payment from Apple,” and the iPhone maker will continue to pay royalties during the term of the agreement.
However, the press release does say that Nokia’s future quarterly announcement may provide more details about how much Apple is paying to settle the lawsuit.
It’s unclear how this matter would have been resolved in courts, but it’s more than clear that Nokia appears to have prevailed against Apple in a patent-based case once again.
