Nokia’s hardware businesses may not be what they once used to be, but the company has had a strong patent portfolio, ever since it started operations. And the Finland-HQed brand is making sure it continues to earn rich dividends, by licensing the same. One of the biggest licensees of Nokia’s huge patent portfolio has been Samsung, and the two are cozying up even further, with expansion of their previous patent deal.
The formal announcement comes, after the two had deliberated the terms in February this year, and agreed upon extending the deal on Feb 1, 2016.
Nokia’s patent portfolio, which already was pretty large, received the biggest boost with the $16 Billion Alcatel-Lucent acquisition. While the cost was high, so were the returns. With the acquisition, Nokia also gained access to Alcatel-Lucent’s massive patent kitty, which the company is now leveraging pretty decently.
The agreement announced today expands access for each company to patented technologies of the other With this expansion, Nokia is expecting a positive impact to the net sales of Nokia Technologies starting from the third quarter of 2016. To get into details of the positive impact being expected here, Nokia Technologies’ annualized net sales related to patent and brand licensing is expected to grow to a run rate of approximately EUR 950 million by the end of 2016.
With intellectual property portfolios from Nokia Technologies, Nokia Networks and Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia has a wealth of technologies relevant to mobile devices and beyond.
said Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies. He further adds,
We welcome this expanded agreement with Samsung which recognizes the strength of our assets, and we continue to pursue new licensing opportunities across a number of diverse industries.
Interestingly though, as has been the case with the previous patent deal, both the companies haven’t really listed out as to what all patents are being covered under this fresh agreement. They do mention that the new deal will let both the companies share “certain additional patent portfolios”.
