Nokia and Samsung announce expansion of patent deal
Original deal was agreed in February in order to share patents on certain products
Updated : 11:19
Technology firms Nokia and Samsung have reached an agreement to extend their current patent deal which was originally announced in February of this year.
The expansion to the deal will give both companies greater access to each other's patented technologies, with Nokia claiming that it will help to boost sales by over $1bn by the end of this year, more than double its 2015 earnings.
The pair’s previous deal covered an unspecific set of patents, and this latest announce is equally as vague.
“With intellectual property portfolios from Nokia Technologies, Nokia Networks and Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia has a wealth of technologies relevant to mobile devices and beyond," said Nokia Technologies president Ramzi Haidamus.
"We welcome this expanded agreement with Samsung which recognizes the strength of our assets, and we continue to pursue new licensing opportunities across a number of diverse industries,”
The Finnish group is said to be planning a return to the smartphone business
The Finnish group is said to be planning a return to the smartphone business in the near future and just earlier this year announced that they were going to create a “new generation of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets”.
Wednesday's agreement is likely to benefit the sales from the third quarter of 2016 and comes less than six months after the companies settled a dispute that resulted in Samsung agreeing to pay Nokia at least 1.3bn euros in cash between 2016 and 2018.