Apple and Nokia said that they were exploring working together on “digital health initiatives” and they have already ended their patent dispute that started last year, the companies announced on Tuesday.
During the term of the agreement, an up-front cash payment from Apple and additional revenues would be got by Nokia. Nokia shares were up around 6.7 percent following the news.
Alleging that Nokia had transferred patents to third parties, Apple filed a lawsuit against third-party companies in December. Allegations by Apple were that the Finnish firm transferred some patents to third-parties in order “to be used for extorting excessive royalties” and the U.S. company said that it was already paying royalties to Nokia for certain technologies used in its products.
Saying that the company declined to license its other technologies used in various products, Nokia hit back and sued Apple directly.
That battle has come to an end, five months on.
Certain network infrastructure products and services will be provided to Apple by Nokia under the deal. Nokia digital health products — such as smartwatches — in its online and physical stores, would soon restart to be stocked by the Cupertino-based tech giant.
Nokia will receive an up-front payment and additional revenues as a result even though other details of the deal still remained confidential. In Nokia’s “Technologies” business unit, and in its other segments, the value of the agreement will be partially reflected as patent licensing net sales. Nokia said that in the second quarter of 2017, revenues for the agreement will start to be recognized in financial reports.
“This is a meaningful agreement between Nokia and Apple,” said Maria Varsellona, chief legal officer at Nokia. “It moves our relationship with Apple from being adversaries in court to business partners working for the benefit of our customers.”
Even though neither company elaborated on the details of this, the two firms also said that they are “exploring future collaboration in digital health initiatives”.
With the aim to boost its presence in the space, Nokia bought French health technology hardware maker Withings for 170 million euros ($191 million) last year. Apple has been working on new developments internally and with products such as the Apple Watch the company CEO Tim Cook has spoken about the company’s ambitions in the health space.
Miles from corporate headquarters, at a nondescript office in Palo Alto, California, Apple has hired a small team of biomedical engineers to work at a nondescript office. Three people familiar with the matter reportedly told the media that sensors that can noninvasively and continuously monitor blood sugar levels to better treat diabetes, was being developed by the biomedical engineers in a very secretive manner.
“We are pleased with this resolution of our dispute and we look forward to expanding our business relationship with Nokia,” Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, said in a statement on Tuesday.
(Adapted from CNBC)
Categories: Economy & Finance, Strategy, Uncategorized
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