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Apple's Nokia Deal Could Cost Android Manufacturers Too

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Apple's patent licensing deal with Nokia may have some additional consequences beyond the immediate effects of the settlement. By agreeing to a long-term licensing agreement with Nokia, Apple gets a lengthly, defensive legal fight out of the way. This allows Apple to focus all its legal energies on major battles with Samsung, HTC and Motorola.

Speaking with the NYTimes, Apple indicates that the settlement is actually a cross-licensing one:
Apple and Nokia have agreed to drop all of our current lawsuits and enter into a license covering some of each other’s patents, but not the majority of the innovation that makes the iPhone unique. We are glad to put this behind us and get back to focusing on our respective businesses.
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There a larger, much more strategic victory here as well. By agreeing to pay royalties for Nokia's patents, Apple has set a market price -- and given Nokia's patents serious legitimacy. Apple wouldn't pay anything if they didn't have to, and other companies may not want to fight over turf Apple has already acquiesced to Nokia.

jobs.jpg



Other companies, notably Android handset manufacturers, may now have to play ball with Nokia on these patents -- and they don't necessarily have the margins to send 1% of gross revenues to Nokia as easily as Apple can. In fact, because Apple has so many of its own patents (some of which it cross-licensed to Nokia) other manufacturers may have to pay even more for the same licenses.

Florian Mueller has suggested just that at FOSS Patents:
Given that Android is in many ways a rip-off of Apple's operating software, Android-based devices are highly likely to infringe on largely the same Nokia patents that Apple now felt forced to pay for.
[...]
This is a sweet defeat for Apple because its competitors -- especially those building Android-based devices -- will also have to pay Nokia, and most if not all of them will likely have to pay more on a per-unit basis because they don't bring as much intellectual property to the table as Apple definitely did.
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Apple pays off Nokia, but exposes the competition as well. Competition that doesn't have as much money or intellectual property to barter with.

(Photo by Acaben/Flickr)

Article Link: Apple's Nokia Deal Could Cost Android Manufacturers Too
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/14/apples-nokia-deal-could-cost-android-manufacturers-too/
If Florian Mueller said something there is a good chance it is some baseless, inflammable, not-real thing that has great likelihood of not happening.

Moving right along.

[ Apple and their followers are like insecure kids - if they get beat up, instead of either accepting or responding they drag that other cool kid in it for no reason but to feel better - look tomorrow that other kid might get beat too - then I will be vindicated.]
 
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nice headline grabbing BS by our media. It is safe to bet that the other manufactures were already paying the for the patents. I know LG, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Blackberry already have an agreement with them and most of them have patents sharing with Nokia.

I love the piss poor reporting the media does.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
nice headline grabbing BS by our media. It is safe to bet that the other manufactures were already paying the for the patents. I know LG, HTC, Samsung, Motorola, and Blackberry already have an agreement with them and most of them have patents sharing with Nokia.

I love the piss poor reporting the media does.
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Amen to this. Other OEMs have been making phones way before Apple even came up with the idea of iPhone. They have already settled with Nokia and are paying the license fees, so why would this hurt Android?
 
It could. It probably may never happen, but if it does, Apple's "surrendering" to Nokia's lawsuit would just add to Nokia's side of the story for anyone who shares a lawsuit regarding whatever patent Apple and Nokia were originally arguing over.
 
Florian on Twitter was incapable of telling why those companies would have to pay and why has been making phones since the 90's without any problem.
 
From the same article:

“Having proven its ability to defeat Apple after the most bitterly contested patent dispute that this industry has seen to date is clear proof of” the effectiveness of Nokia's more aggressive strategy, Mr. Mueller said. “Other companies whom Nokia will ask to pay royalties will have to think very hard whether to pay or pick a fight."

So it sounds like to me, Nokia just became the school yard bully.
 
The "winner" of a cross-licensing deal, if you want to think of it that way, is the one who gets paid, in this case Nokia. I doubt that Apple has had trouble because its lawyers are spread too thin, but the settlement is presumably worth it to Apple. They may have expected to owe these same licensing payments anyway as a result of the lawsuits.

It's best for our interests as consumers if companies have strong reasons to do the R&D for new developments, with rights to their patents being one of their incentives. But it's also in our interests to see new developments used in many products, which can result from cross-licensing and even from patent infringement! Somebody (us) ultimately has to pay for it, of course, but I'd rather pay for R&D than for court battles.
 
The only way this even "hurts" android and others is they have to keep paying the fees they have been paying any how.

oh wait that does nothing to them and it is status quo. If Apple had won it would of done some good so to speak because they would no longer have to license them.
 
And Android still has to face the Java lawsuit that might wipe them out.

I am sure many people can't wait.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.3.4; en-gb; Nexus S Build/GRJ22) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

This is fantastic news!

Hit Bada and WebOS whilst they're at it.

Edit: I am being sarcastic btw.
 
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Oletros said:
Florian on Twitter was incapable of telling why those companies would have to pay and why has been making phones since the 90's without any problem.
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Florian Mueller has been proven in the past to publish BS information. I take anything he says for a grain of salt.
 
supmango said:
So it sounds like to me, Nokia just became the school yard bully.
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Yeah, right. And Apple was the poor weak nerdy kid with glasses. LOL!

Apple has a tendency to innovate without researching whether it's already been "innovated" by somebody else already.
 
Makes more sense that it's cross-licenense and not as suggested by all media this morning that it's all Apple -> Nokia.
 
Ok, what gives here. Is this some stock pump article by MR????

First the false report that Android makers will have to pay Nokia (they already license the patent). Next, showing a completely unrelated picture of a 'fat' Steve Jobs which was obviously from half a decade ago.

Real classy! :rolleyes:
 
Consultant said:
And Android still has to face the Java lawsuit that might wipe them out.

I am sure many people can't wait.
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That's like saying Nokia was going wipe out the iPhone, ie never would happen. There is too much money going around and in the end someone will pay someone else and Android will go on.
 
Consultant said:
And Android still has to face the Java lawsuit that might wipe them out.

I am sure many people can't wait.
Click to expand...

I guess you'd be all for an Apple dictatorship over the market wouldn't you. Are you sure you're a consultant? :rolleyes:
 
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