It’s less than a week to Valentine’s Day and there’s already a piece of good news in the mobile industry. Earlier on, Nokia and HTC have signed a patent and technology collaboration agreement that will bring all patent litigation to an end. On top of that, both companies will work together to capitalize on HTC current LTE patent portfolio and will be on the lookout for any future collaboration opportunities.
Nokia had the upper hand as it has been on a winning streak against HTC. For now, it is understood that HTC will be making payments to Nokia, though it is unclear though how much HTC actually have to pay Nokia. The full terms of the signed agreement will be kept confidential .
In a press release, Paul Melin, chief intellectual property officer at Nokia said “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.”
“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.”
Such a move isn’t surprising as both tech companies may have realized that the only way to survive the vast market out there is to work together to make full use of their patent portfolios and focus fully on innovating than just simple rival it out in court, wasting resources and get entangled in a never-ending case. As consumers, intellectual rivalry between companies also puts us at a disadvantage and it’s really great to see one less dispute in the market now.
For now… back to Apple versus Samsung. Let’s see if the dispute between these top two companies will be able to end with a better note in this New Year or plunge to greater lows.