A little while back it was found out that RIM was violating Nokia patent on WLAN patents. Nokia took RIM to a a tribunal, which ruled in favour of Nokia and settlement was agreed to. We did not know how much this settlement was worth until recently when the form from the patent deal became public knowledge and it was found out they settled for 65 Million dollars.
On December 21, 2012, Nokia and RIM announced that they have entered into a new patent license agreement. The agreement will result in the settlement of all patent litigation between the companies and Nokia's dismissal of all pending actions in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany. The financial structure of the agreement includes a lump sum 50 million euros (approximately $65 million) one-time payment, which has been recorded in the Company's consolidated statement of operations in the third quarter of fiscal 2013.
It is not clear whether this 65 million dollars covers one year only or covers forever. From earlier statements it seems that it RIM would need to pay Nokia per device for this patent breech.
A Nokia spokesperson told the Guardian: "Nokia and RIM agreed a cross-licence for standards-essential cellular patents in 2003, which was amended in 2008. In 2011, RIM sought arbitration, arguing that the licence extended beyond cellular essentials. In November 2012, the arbitration tribunal ruled against RIM. It found that RIM was in breach of contract and is not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products without first agreeing royalties with Nokia. In order to enforce the Tribunal's ruling, we have now filed actions in the US, UK and Canada with the aim of ending RIMs breach of contract."
Also if you note the first statement says "...agreement includes a lump sum 50 million euros (approximately $65 million) one-time payment..." This also leads me to believe Nokia will be seeing a per device fee from RIM. This is good news for Nokia as they appear to be starting to turn the corner. A new stream of income could never hurt till they start being profitable again.
VIA
