HTC and Nokia decided to bury the hatchet and sign a patent agreement on Friday. The two companies will refrain from further patent litigation and have agreed to live in peace.
Patent lawsuits are not only costly, but also very petty in many cases. HTC and Nokia decided that it was in their best interest to avoid a long legal battle and to sign a patent agreement instead. Although the full terms of the agreement haven't been released, Nokia and HTC have agreed to work together on a few projects and look forward to "future technology collaboration opportunities."
"We are very pleased to have reached a settlement and collaboration agreement with HTC, which is a long-standing licensee for Nokia's standards essential patents," said Paul Melin, Nokia's chief intellectual property officer in a statement.
HTC seconded Nokia's opinion that reaching common ground was the right choice for both companies.
"Nokia has one of the most preeminent patent portfolios in the industry," said Grace Lei, General Counsel of HTC. "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."
The agreement puts an end to Nokia's accusation that HTC, RIM and ViewSonic infringed on 45 of its patents. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2012, included Nokia's patents for antennas, radio components, power usage and several software features such as multitasking, navigation, the app store and the method for mobile access to email attachments. Nokia also accused its competitors of stealing other software features such as "conversational" message display, dynamic menus and some types of data encryption.
Nokia typically charges a very high price for its patents, so HTC probbaly had to hand over quite a bit of money to strike this bargain with Nokia. In 2011, Apple settled with Nokia for 430 million Euros, so that it could use the company's patents.
Both Nokia and HTC are in the middle of big transitions within their respective businesses. HTC struggles to remain relevant and produce profitable devices after it announced its first-ever quarterly loss last year. Meanwhile, Nokia is in the middle of selling half of its business to Microsoft. Neither company could afford to waste the time or money that a long patent lawsuit requires. Parting as friends seemed much wiser, so HTC and Nokia behaved like grown ups and made a deal.
It is doubtful that Apple and Samsung will behave with even half the civility shown by HTC and Nokia when their trial comes along.
