Nokia, Kyocera settle patent fight

Nokia and Kyocera today revealed they have ended a two-year-old-patent dispute that had taken place largely outside of the public eye, agreeing to license each other's mobile handset technology.

Kyocera has agreed to license Nokia's essential patents relating to CDMA and personal handyphone service (PHS) technologies. Also known as personal digital cellular (PDC), PHS is second-generation cellular access technology originally developed for the Japanese market and forms the backbone of NTT DoCoMo and other Japanese carriers' wireless voice networks. The clincher is Kyocera has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of royalties for every CDMA phones it produces, a major business for Kyocera considering it sells CDMA phones throughout Asia and the Americas.

Nokia is also licensing Kyocera intellectual property in a similar broad-sweeping but unspecific manner. Nokia has agreed to license all Kyocera--again "essential"--patents covering "all standards" and all of Nokia's mobile phone, module and infrastructure products. No specifics on how large of a scope that definition covers or if Nokia will pay any specific royalties was covered.

The companies have been fairly quiet about negotiations since they began their dispute in February 2004, but in October Kyocera accused Nokia of infringing on three of its patents in manufacturing 36 handsets, no small number even for Nokia.