Nokia signs 5G patent deal with vivo

Nokia signed numerous 5G patent agreements last year. The Finnish company recently convinced Oppo that it is better to use technology patented by other companies by simply paying for it.

Today, Nokia signs a new 5G patent agreement, this time with another Chinese smartphone maker, vivo. Certainly, this is a multi-year cross-licensing agreement that will benefit both companies, but it is Vivo who wins in the short term since it can now return to the German market after losing the lawsuit filed by Nokia.

The announcement mentions that the new agreement “resolved all pending patent disputes between the parties, in all jurisdictions.” However, the terms of the deal remain confidential, so we can't add much to that.

With this licensing agreement, Nokia “has now almost completed its smartphone license renewal cycle,” the company notes. The Finnish giant has signed similar agreements with other major smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, Honor, Huawei, Oppo and even Apple.

“This is the sixth major smartphone patent licensing agreement we have signed in the last thirteen months, and we have now almost completed our smartphone license renewal cycle. Together, these licensing agreements demonstrate Nokia's significant contribution to the development of key technologies that underpin the entire smartphone industry and will provide long-term stability to our licensing business for years to come.said Jenni Lukander, President of Nokia Technologies.

Nokia expects its intellectual property licensing business to generate around 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in the medium term, which is not much considering that the company has invested around 150 billion euros in R&D.