Nokia wins last round in battle against Apple

Nokia has left the ring with a bit of a swagger after announcing today that it had finally reached an agreement with its rival Apple that would see the Finnish mobile giant being paid a one-time settlement fee and ongoing royalties.

In a statement released today, Nokia says the “financial structure of the [patent licence] agreement consists of a one-time payment payable by Apple and on-going royalties to be paid by Apple to Nokia for the term of the agreement”. The specific amounts of the deal would remain confidential, the company said.

Stephen Elop, president and chief executive officer of Nokia, today welcomed Apple as one of the “growing number of Nokia licensees”.

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

In papers filed in the US in October 2009, Nokia alleged that Apple’s iPhones had infringed on a number of Nokia’s patents related to WiFi, GSM and UMTS, more commonly referred to as 3G.

At the time, Nokia claimed that the basic principle in the mobile industry was that companies who contributed in technology development to establish standards created intellectual property, that others would then need to compensate for. It accused Apple of attempting to get “a free ride on the back of Nokia’s innovation”.

Things have hotted up at Nokia since the appointment of Elop as Nokia CEO last year. In February, he announced a dramatic restructuring of the company to stem its decline.

But in May, the company’s share price slumped to its lowest level in 13 years. Bloomberg recently reported the news that sales of devices and revenue forecasts would be “substantially” less than the projected range of 6.1-billion euros.