Nokia Prepared to Sell Patents if Price Right
06/14/2012| 09:45am US/Eastern
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Nokia is prepared to divest part of its formidable portfolio of patents to raise much-needed cash, Chief Financial Officer Timo Ihamuotila said Thursday
"We will sell patents at the right price," Mr. Ihamuotila said during a conference call following the company's second-quarter profit warning and restructuring announcement.
Mr. Ihamuotila added that Nokia, with its large patent portfolio, is able to sell patents while maintaining a strong intellectual property rights portfolio.
Nokia's patent portfolio consists of 30,000 patents and around 10,000 patented innovations. Its research and development operations create an average of 1,000 patentable innovations annually.
In its first-quarter report, Nokia flagged that revenue from its intellectual property rights portfolio totals around EUR500 million a year at the current run-rate.
Nokia has been putting more focus on its patent portfolio. Last month, the Finnish handset maker filed several claims at courts in the U.S. and Germany, alleging that products from rivals HTC Corp. (2498.TW) and Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), and from visual technology company Viewsonic Corp. infringe on a number of its patents.
In June last year, Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Nokia agreed to settle a number of patent disputes between the two companies, with Apple agreeing to make a one-time payment to Nokia and pay continuing royalties as part of a patent-license agreement.
At 1254 GMT, shares in Nokia were 9% lower at EUR2.
Write to Sven Grundberg at sven.grundberg@dowjones.com
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