From DailyTech: Under a newly minted deal between the world's top smartphone maker -- South Korea's Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) and Nokia Oyj. (HEX:NOK1V)), Samsung agrees to pay Nokia royalties on its Android smartphones, beginning in January 2014.
The deal is another crucial coup for the Finland-based Nokia, who recently opted to sell its recovering devices division to ally Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and focus its efforts on the telecommunications equipment market. Nokia already owns a major licensing deal with Apple, Inc. (AAPL). Apple -- widely known in the smartphone "patent wars" as an aggressor -- ironically enough was on the receiving end of Nokia litigation back in 2009, which culminated in an agreement from Apple to pay licensing fees.
Apple's licensing rates (i.e. how much Apple pays Nokia per iPhone to "borrow" its "innovations" -- intellectual property) interestingly may have played a key role in the Nokia-Samsung negotiations and are also the subject of a growing controversy.
Apple and Samsung are currently locked in a second round of suits-countersuits, which will be tried in March 2014 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California with Judge Paul S. Grewal presiding over the trial. Ironically, that case only involves the Galaxy SII, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy Note 2 -- aging Androids which Samsung will likely have largely have stopped making by the time the case wraps up. Apple tried to tack on Samsung's current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, but Judge Grewal denied that motion, forcing Apple to have to likely wait for a third trial in mid-to-late 2015 on that, and possibly other devices.
Overseas Samsung has faced some minor losses, seeing brief bans of its "Galaxy Tab" product line, but has been successful in convincing foreign regulators that its workarounds eliminate Apple's infringement claims. Notably in the UK Samsung actually was found completely innocent -- illustrating the diverse range of opinions regarding software patents and their scope.
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