Apple and Nokia kiss and make up

In a stark contrast to Apple’s usual business activities, the iLeader has settled its litigation disputes with Nokia surprisingly quickly and all is rosy now.

While we are not necessarily suggesting Apple is a combative organization, it does seem to spend a lot of time arguing its case in front of a judge. This announcement settles a long-running dispute between the two parties, who have promised to get on in the future. Bosom buddies if you will.

“This is a meaningful agreement between Nokia and Apple,” said Maria Varsellona, Chief Legal Officer at Nokia. “It moves our relationship with Apple from being adversaries in court to business partners working for the benefit of our customers.”

Under a business collaboration agreement, Nokia will be providing certain network infrastructure products and services to Apple, and the iBoss will resume carrying Nokia digital health products in its retail and online stores. The budding new pair will also look to drive future collaboration in digital health initiatives.

The tiff itself actually kicked off back in December, as Nokia accused Apple of using its patents without cash passing hands in such areas as display, user interface, software, antenna, chipsets and video coding. There were 32 patents in suit across all of the actions, though the terms of the deal have been kept under-wraps.

“We are pleased with this resolution of our dispute and we look forward to expanding our business relationship with Nokia,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO.

The iChief will pay an up-front settlement to Nokia, which will be reflected partially as patent licensing net sales in Nokia Technologies and partially as net sales in other Nokia business groups. Disputes of this nature usually rumble on for long-periods, though Apple has recently found a new opponent to battle on the legal front, Qualcomm, which can now kindly receive more attention from the iLegal team.