For the past several months, Research in Motion and Nokia have been in a patent fight in the US, UK and Canada. Nokia claimed that RIM was violating its patents relating to WiFi connectivity with its BlackBerry smartphones. Today, both companies decided to get into the Christmas spirit and end their patent fight in those countries.
In a press release, Nokia said that it will enter into a new patent license agreement with RIM which will include both a one time payment as well as some ongoing payments. However, as usual with these matters, the specific terms of the agreement will remain unrevealed.
The news of the new partnership between Nokia and RIM came the day after RIM released its latest financial results for the quarter that ended December 1st. The company announced revenues of $2.7 billion for the quarter, down 47 percent from the same period a year ago. Those numbers, however, beat previous expectations.
RIM shipped 6.9 million BlackBerry smartphones and 255,000 PlayBook tablets during the quarter. It also said that it had 79 million subscribers, which is actually down one million from the previous quarter; it's the first time in RIM's history that it lost subscribers for its service.
Of course, RIM is hoping the launch of BlackBerry 10 and its two smartphones will turn the tide. While there have been lots of Internet leaks showing both the OS and the smartphones, RIM will officially announce BlackBerry 10 in press events on January 30th.
Source: Nokia
Signature image via Shutterstock
15 Comments - Add comment