Nokia pegs $3 for every 5G smartphone patent license

Global tech giant Nokia has announced its patent-licensing rate for 5G smartphones, pegging the value of its 5G patents at $3 per smartphone. The price for the service is comparatively less than what Qualcomm and Ericsson are charging for their own 5G patents.
Informing about the details, Ilkka Rahnasto, head of patent business at Nokia said, as reported by FierceWireless, “Nokia innovation combined with our commitment to open standardization has helped build the networks of today and lay the foundations for 5G/NR. This announcement is an important step in helping companies plan for the intraoduction of 5G/NR capable mobile phones, with the first commercial launches expected in 2019.”

He added that for other categories of devices, the company will determine its licensing rates separately. Rahnasto said, “Nokia seeks to engage in constructive dialogue with relevant industry participants to define the licensing models best suited for those industries.”

Nokia’s latest announcement underscores major elements in the growth of the 5G industry, as for finalising the patents involved in the final 5G standard, the companies are looking to cash in on patent-licensing agreements. This happened during the 3G and 4G launch time too, where key players argued that the patent-licensing situations were so onerous that it did not support the entry of new players into the market.

Speaking more on the issue, Nokia’s Rajeev Suri said, as reported by the news website, “We expect our current portfolio strength both to continue for many years to come and to give us considerable monetization opportunities. … We’ve always had clear and ambitious targets for the new patent creation and we are constantly adding new patents to our portfolio while still maintaining a high-quality threshold.”

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