Nokia lost the patent royalty payment case to InterDigital, the US-based wireless tech firm who sued Nokia for the technology Nokia used in its 2G and 2.5 G mobile phones. InterDigital holds the patents for some of the technologies that is being used in those phones.



This means that Nokia have now to pay InterDigital about 232 million US dollars in royalty payments.



On Wednesday that a federal district court judge in New York had upheld an earlier ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce’s Court of Arbitration (ICCCA), which ruled that Nokia owed InterDigital over US$230 million in royalty payments.



Nokia appealed to the New York court to overturn this ruling.



Now, having lost this claim, Nokia has said it will negotiate with InterDigital about the size of the payment.



Where is this patent royalty business heading to folks? There should be some mechanism to stop this. One way could be that if a patent holder doesn’t undertake any developmental measures within a stipulated time frame (that may vary with the field of technology and market research coupled with commercial ramifications) then the patent should stand automatically overturned.



We are yet to see the outcome of the RIM Vs NTP battle going on over BlackBerry.



News: ZDNet Asia