STOCKHOLM--As investors digest Friday's ruling by a California jury in favour of Apple Inc. (AAPL) in its high-profile lawsuit against Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE), a major beneficiary may be Nokia Corp. (NOK), the two companies' struggling rival which has become increasingly protective of its patents, considered one of the industry's strongest portfolios of intellectual property rights.
Nokia's portfolio, built up during the past 20 years, consists of more than 30,000 patents and around 10,000 patented innovations, covering a wide range of areas including wireless technology and materials technology. Analysts put a value of this portfolio at EUR4 billion($5 billion) to EUR10 billion.
But the value of the portfolio may now rise, not least because during the court hearing, Apple used a new Nokia smartphone, which runs on Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows Phone operating system, to demonstrate what mobile-phone makers can produce without infringing on Apple's property rights.
"Apple's lawyers in the trial against Samsung used new Nokia Lumia devices to illustrate that it is possible to make mobile phones clearly different from Apple's iPhone," said Sydbank analyst Morten Imsgaard.
Nokia shares jumped 7.7% in Monday trading to EUR2.68, taking the company's market capitalization on Helsinki's stock exchange to EUR10.1 billion.
Friday's judgment in the U.S. federal court in San Jose, Calif., which included a $1 billion penalty for Samsung, could also enhance the appeal of the Windows Phone system for smartphones as an alternative to Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android system which is used by the South Korean company among others, said Sami Sarkamies, an analyst at banking group Nordea.
Nokia declined to comment Monday on the implications of the court ruling in Apple's favor. A spokesman said the Finnish company remains committed to a policy of "active intellectual property management."
Indeed, Nokia may now seek more of its own lucrative royalty agreements with major makers of devices running Android. Nokia, under investor scrutiny as it undergoes a difficult transition to adopt Microsoft's operating system for its own phones and catch up with Apple and Samsung in the smartphone market, has lately decided exploit its patent portfolio more fully.
Apple and Nokia agreed to settle a number of patent disputes last year. Apple agreed to make a one-time payment to Nokia and pay continuing royalties as part of the deal.
In May this year, 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. infringed a number of its patents.
Nokia has hired specialist patent-licensing firms, which seek to maximize the value of patent rights though licensing and litigation, to monetize is large patent portfolio.
For example, Nokia entered an agreement to sell 2,000 patents to Canada'sMosaid Technologies Inc. in September last year. At the time, Mosaid said it would cover the costs to administer and enforce the patents in exchange for one-third of the royalty revenue generated from licensing them. Nokia and Microsoft, which has entered into licensing agreements with Nokia related to some of the patents, will share the rest of the revenue.
Since selling patents to Mosaid, Nokia has signed similar deals with Italy'sSisvel International and US-based Vringo Inc. (VRNG).
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