Nokia in licence pact with RIM to settle existing patent suits

"The agreement will result in settlement of all existing patent litigation between the companies and withdrawal of pending actions in the US, UK and Canada related to a recent arbitration tribunal decision," Finland-based Nokia said in a statement.

The financial structure of the agreement includes undisclosed one-time payment and on-going payments, all from RIM to Nokia.

"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, he added.

During the last two decades, Nokia said it has invested approximately euro 45 billion in research and development and built the wireless industry's "strongest" and "broadest" Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) portfolio, with around 10,000 patent families.