Finnish phone giant Nokia has announced that it has entered into a new patent license agreement with BlackBerry maker RIM (Research In Motion).

This agreement will result in settlement of all existing patent litigation between the companies, as well as the withdrawal of pending actions in the US, UK and Canada related to a recent arbitration tribunal decision.

The financial structure of the agreement includes a one-time payment supplemented by ongoing payments from RIM to Nokia, but the financial terms of these payments were not disclosed.

Espoo stated that it has invested around €45 billion in research and development over the last two decades and built the wireless industry’s broadest IPR (intellectual property rights) portfolio at about 10 000 patent families.

“We are very pleased to have resolved our patent licensing issues with RIM and reached this new agreement, while maintaining Nokia’s ability to protect our unique product differentiation,” said Paul Melin, chief intellectual property officer at Nokia.

“This agreement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market,” Melin concluded.

 

In related news, Apple and HTC also had all patent litigation between the two firms dismissed last month when the two tech companies penned a patent licensing deal.