Apple and Nokia sign multi-year patent license to end ongoing intellectual property case

Two of the biggest names in the tech industry, Apple and Nokia, have reportedly ended their latest legal spat based on intellectual property. With that, the companies have signed a multi-year patent agreement. This essentially means that Apple will now sell Nokia’s digital health products in its online and offline stores while Nokia will provide certain network infrastructure products and services in return. Both the companies recently settled a two-year legal battle which sparked off in 2011 over license fees for patents that Nokia owned. Late last year, Nokia claimed that Apple had denied the offer that Nokia had made for Apple to license additional patented inventions used in Apple products. Nokia had officially announced on 21 December that it was **suing Apple** for patent infringement in the U.S. and Germany and then went on to expand the litigation against Apple to cover 40 patents in 11 countries. Apple was quick to respond as it pulled down Nokia owned Withings’ health products from the Apple Store. It seems that now they have patched up. According to Nokia’s chief legal officer Maria Varsellona,“This is a meaningful agreement between Nokia and Apple. It moves our relationship with Apple from being adversaries in court to business partners working for the benefit of our customers.” The two companies have also revealed that they will now explore future collaboration in digital health initiatives.