The South China Morning Post reports that Finnish phone giant Nokia and Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC both entered into a patent and technology collaboration agreement to end all patent litigation. The agreement, said the report, will have HTC pay out Nokia and work on a collaboration involving the former's LTE patent portfolio to bolster the licensing offer of the latter, said HTC during the weekend. Moreover, HTC also said that the agreement will have both company explore collaboration opportunities in technology. The Taiwanese phone maker refused to go into the details of its agreement with Nokia,
HTC general counsel Grace Lei said, "Nokia has one of the most pre-eminent patent portfolios in the industry. As an industry pioneer in smartphones with a strong patent portfolio, HTC is pleased to come to this agreement, which will enable us to stay focused on innovation for consumers."
Nokia chief intellectual property officer Paul Melin said, "(The agreement) validates Nokia's implementation patents and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities." He also said that the Finnish company is pleased with its settlement with HTC.
HTC reportedly was found to have violated four of Nokia's patents. Nokia started its patent litigation against the Taiwanese company in 2012 and had filed over 50 lawsuits against other entities all over the world.
Aside from selling its own mobile phones, HTC also manufactures handsets for several leading companies in the US, including Google.
SCMP noted the surge of patent litigation between technology giants. Apple also claimed that HTC and other smartphone makers that had been using the Android mobile operating system of Google Inc infringed the patents it currently held. HTC and Apple had been locked in a patent war with over 20 cases globally until they have agreed to a settlement across litigation in later 2012. The agreement resulted the end of all litigation outstanding between the two.
