Last week we heard that the European regulators had approved the Microsoft buyout of Nokia’s mobile and services division, Microsoft will take over the running of Nokia’s smartphone business.
Nokia will also license a range of patents to Microsoft over the next 10 years, and now the EU regulators have said that they will be watching Nokia, after the $7.2 billion deal is done.
The news comes from Joaquin Almunia, who is head of the European Commission that approved the deal between Microsoft and Nokia, and he has basically warned Nokia about using their large portfolio of mobile patents to sue other companies, ie being a ‘Patent Troll’.
Joaquin Almunia said in a speech in Paris on Monday he had approved the $7.2 billion sale as not presenting problems on Microsoft’s side, but there is a danger Nokia will now attempt to “extract higher returns” from its patent portfolio. “In other words…behave like a patent troll, or to use a more polite phrase, a patent assertion entity.”
Nokia will not be able to make mobile phones until 2016, and then they will only be able to make feature phones and not smartphones, as part of the Microsoft deal.
It will be interesting to see what plans Nokia has for the company’s future, once they have sold their mobile business to Microsoft.
Source AP, Engadget
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