BlackBerry ‘accepts’ $157m patent payment to Nokia
Canadian technology company BlackBerry has said it accepts a ruling from the International Court of Arbitration which ordered it to pay $157 million in patent licensing fees to Nokia.
Blackberry announced the decision in a statement on Friday, December 1.
“BlackBerry is disappointed that the court did not agree with our arguments in the case but we accept their decision,” the statement said.
“This ruling does not change BlackBerry’s assertion that Nokia is infringing on our intellectual property, and we are continuing to vigorously pursue legal remedies in both the US and Germany.”
It added that BlackBerry will record the amount as “a one-time GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) only charge”.
The dispute began at the International Court of Arbitration in April 2016 when Nokia filed a request for arbitration.
The case centred on payments which were allegedly due to Nokia under a patent licence contract between the companies.
After the ruling, Nokia issued a statement welcoming the decision and saying it “confirms that BlackBerry had failed to make certain payments to Nokia under a patent licence agreement”.
Nokia added that a “significant portion of the amount awarded has already been recognised by Nokia in its financials for previous periods”.
The company concluded by saying: “Nokia continues to believe that BlackBerry’s unrelated claims of patent infringement by Nokia are without merit.”
BlackBerry and Nokia have been involved in two patent disputes this year, including one in the US.
The lawsuit, filed (pdf) at the US District Court for the District of Delaware in February, claimed that Nokia infringed patents through its Flexi Multiradio base stations and associated software such as the Liquid Radio software suite.
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