Nokia and Honor start new year with 5G patent licence agreement

Nokia and Honor are the latest telecommunication companies to sign a joint agreement which covers their 5G technological inventions, as well as other areas. According to the Nokia website, its patent portfolio is comprised of around 20,000 patent families, including over 6,000 patent families declared essential to 5G. Honor states that it has filed over 20,000 patent applications. However, the terms of the agreement remain confidential between the two parties.

Wenyu Zhou, head of global IP at Honor, says, “The conclusion of the patent cross-licence agreement shows Honor’s commitment on innovation to enabling a smart life across all scenarios and all channels, for all people.”

Nokia comes to agreements

During 2023, the Finnish company concluded agreements with Apple and Samsung, as well as the extension of an agreement with Huawei at the end of 2021. Susanna Martikainen, chief licensing officer mobile devices at Nokia, says, “[This] is the fourth major litigation-free smartphone agreement that Nokia has concluded over the past twelve months and highlights once again the strength of Nokia’s patent portfolio and decades-long contributions to cellular standards and other technologies.”

As such, January 2024 heralds the start of another 5G licence agreement between Nokia and Apple, which the companies announced in July last year. This is likely to continue the terms of a previous licence signed in 2017. Under the agreement, which covers Nokia’s 5G inventions as well as other technologies, Apple will make payments to the Finnish company.

As with the Honor deal, both companies are keeping the terms confidential.

An annual trend

According to a Nokia spokesperson, the Finnish company remains active in renewal negotiations with smartphone companies Vivo and Oppo, despite the companies currently battling it out in fierce litigation against both parties. In January 2023, Nokia and Samsung also concluded discussions to extend their 5G cross-licensing agreement. This expired at the end of 2022 after four years. Nokia and Huawei also extended their agreement from December 2022.

Previously, in June 2021, Nokia and Daimler announced the conclusion of a licensing agreement for the use of the former’s mobile patents by the German carmaker. This settled the companies’ global patent dispute over connected cars technology. In doing so, it also ended a pending FRAND case before the CJEU.