Nokia and Apple Are Exploring Health Tech Partnership Following Their Patent Fight The companies have ended their patent fight and said they're planning to explore 'future collaboration in digital health initiatives.'
By Angela Moscaritolo •
This story originally appeared on PCMag
Nokia and Apple have ended their patent fight and are now talking about expanding their business relationship.
In a joint statement Tuesday, the companies announced that they have settled all litigation related to their intellectual property dispute and signed a multi-year patent license.
As part of the agreement, Apple will, once again, carry Nokia's digital health products (formerly under the Withings brand) in its retail and online stores after pulling them from shelves in December. Nokia will provide Apple with "certain network infrastructure product and services" and the companies' top executives plan to meet regularly. Apple and Nokia said they're also planning to explore "future collaboration in digital health initiatives."
In a statement, Nokia's Chief Legal Officer Maria Varsellona called this a "meaningful agreement."
"It moves our relationship with Apple from being adversaries in court to business partners working for the benefit of our customers," Varsellona added.
The companies are keeping financial details of the agreement confidential, but Apple will provide Nokia with an "up-front cash payment," along with additional revenues during the terms of the agreement.
"We are pleased with this resolution of our dispute and we look forward to expanding our business relationship with Nokia," Apple's Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams said in a statement.
The agreement comes after Nokia in December announced it had filed "a number of" complaints against Apple in Germany and the U.S., claiming the Cupertino tech giant was using its parented inventions in "many" products, without a license for them. Nokia said Apple's products infringed on 32 of its patents covering "display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding" technologies. The Finnish phone maker said the legal action followed years of failed negotiations with Apple.
