RIM's patent payment to Nokia starts at $65M
The patent peace between the two companies comes at a financial cost to BlackBerry maker Research In Motion.
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Research In Motion is making an initial payment of $65 million to Nokia as part of the settlement of the patent dispute between the two companies.
The payment was disclosed in RIM's most recent 6-K filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was first spotted by All Things D.
RIM and Nokia announced the settlement on December 21, saying that RIM has agreed to make a one-time payment to the Finnish phone maker along with "ongoing payments" for the right to use Nokia's patents. At the time, they did not disclose the value of any of the payments.
The new patent license agreement brings an end to all of the patent litigation between the companies and Nokia's dismissal of all pending actions in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Germany, according to the SEC filing.
Nokia patents that had been cited in lawsuits against RIM touched on a number of technologies including the following, according to the SEC filing: power consumption in a mobile station; a network activation service scheme using point-to-point short messaging service; and a security improvement scheme for packet-mode transmission in a mobile communication system.
The one-time lump sum of 50 million euros (approximately $65 million) was recorded in RIM's consolidated statement of operations for the third quarter of its fiscal 2013. RIM announced the results for that quarter on December 20, reporting a profit of $14 million, or 3 cents a share, thanks largely to a favorable tax settlement, as revenue fell by nearly half to $2.72 billion and as the company shed 1 million BlackBerry customers.
RIM is hoping for a return to former glory in 2013 with the long-anticipated arrival of its BlackBerry 10 operating system in late January.
The SEC filing does not disclose the amount of the ongoing license payments from RIM to Nokia.
RIM declined to provide additional comment.
See also: Nokia on the edge: Inside an icon's fight for survival
