Nokia and HTC sign patent deal to end legal spat

Nokia's patent holdings win out

Nokia and HTC have signed a cross-licence patent deal, ending all litigation between the two firms immediately. This ends the threat for HTC of its phones being banned from sale in the UK.

The full terms of the agreement remain unknown. However a statement from Nokia confirmed that the deal will see HTC make payments to Nokia for use of an unspecified number of patents. Nokia will also use some of HTC's LTE patent portfolio.

Nokia chief intellectual property officer Paul Melin said the agreement underlined the value of the firm's patent holdings.

"We are very pleased to have reached a settlement and collaboration agreement with HTC, which is a long-standing licencee for Nokia's standards essential patents," he said. "This agreement validates Nokia's implementation patents and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities."

General counsel for HTC Grace Lei said the deal was a good move for HTC to enable it to focus on innovation.

"Nokia has one of the most pre-eminent patent portfolios in the industry," she said. "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."

HTC and Nokia are two of many companies to sign cross-licence patent deals in recent weeks. Samsung, Google and Cisco all signed similar patent agreements earlier this year.

The most heated battles over patents have been between Apple and Samsung, since Apple accused Samsung of copying its iPad design in 2011. Apple won a key victory against Samsung in the US in January, when a judge ruled that Galaxy handsets infringed on a predictive text input patent owned by the iPhone maker.