Context: Nokia is continuing its focus on new verticals since the successful completion of its smartphone renewals in 2024. In some cases, this has led to litigation, including with Acer (March 30, 2026 ip fray article) and ASUS (March 12, 2026 ip fray article) over standard-essential patents (SEPs) covering video coding and Wi-Fi technologies, and Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount (February 26, 2026 ip fray article) over video-related patents in the U.S., Brazil, the Unified Patent Court, and Germany. While in others, it has settled (such as with Hisense: January 8, 2026 ip fray article), or inked licensing deals with no publicly-known litigation (such as with Snapchat: January 14, 2026 ip fray article and several Chinese automakers: January 20, 2026 ip fray article).
What’s new: Nokia has now successfully licensed three leading residential security systems providers, including ADT, through its IoT licensing program, Nokia’s Chief Licensing Officer of Wireless Technologies, Susanna Martikainen, revealed in a blog post today (March 31, 2026 Nokia blog post). The deals, she noted, were all litigation-free and are part of the strategy Nokia is taking to open up one licensing vertical at a time.
Direct impact and wider ramifications: These agreements follow a series of industry-first deals in other verticals (such as the above-mentioned automotive deals in China, as well as with point-of-sale payment device makers). The company has now invested over €150 billion in its research and standardization since the year 2000, and these deals in the new verticals indicate that it is also increasingly strengthening its patent portfolio in non-essential technologies, too. Last June, Ms. Martikainen noted that the company had signed deals with three unnamed consumer electronics companies, several small mobile device vendors, and two major automakers covering the use of its Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technologies in their cars (June 9, 2025 ip fray article). This came after the company also signed with Amazon (March 31, 2025 ip fray article), and settled with Chinese point-of-sale (POS) payment device maker SUNMI (May 19, 2025 ip fray LinkedIn post).
In the blog post, Ms. Martikainen wrote that she is “delighted” to see that the approach Nokia has taken is delivering results in practice. The three new agreements demonstrate that constructive engagement and a shared commitment to fair licensing can lead to positive outcomes for all parties, she added.