Technology

Once a Handset Superpower, Nokia Still Commands a Potent Weapon

  • Patent licensing dispute with Daimler has spooked car industry
  • Wireless companies pushing for umbrella pricing model
The Nokia Oyj Executive Experience Center stands in Espoo, Finland.Photographer: Roni Rekomaa/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

A good decade after Nokia Oyj’s mobile-phone business suffered a fatal blow at the hands of the iPhone, the Finnish company is still feeding off a lucrative asset that it salvaged from the wreckage.

Nokia retained a catalog of thousands of wireless communications patents that is steadily growing thanks to a thriving research operation. Now an attempt to change how those patents are monetized has led Nokia into court with Daimler AG, the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars.