Context: Over the past couple of years, especially after the completion of its smartphone renewals and its deal with Transsion (January 30, 2025 ip fray article) last year, Nokia has been expanding its patent licensing focus beyond solely mobile phone makers, including consumer electronics – such as its deal with Samsung covering video technologies (January 15, 2025 ip fray article) – and automotive (December 17, 2024 ip fray article). The company also recently celebrated a milestone of 7,000 patent families declared as essential to 5G (February 7, 2025 ip fray article).
What’s new: In a corporate blog post today, Nokia’s Chief Licensing Officer for Wireless Technologies, Susanna Martikainen, highlights the continued patent licensing momentum that the company has carried over into 2025, including signing 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 Nokia blog post). This comes 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).
Direct impact: Nokia’s patent licensing successes in the past six months are largely thanks to Mrs. Martikainen, whom President of Nokia Technologies, Patrik Hammarén, convinced to stay after she had originally resigned (December 9, 2024 LinkedIn post by ip fray). She took on an expanded role at the end of last year to include all four of Nokia’s patent licensing programs for mobile devices, consumer electronics, automotive, and IoT.
Wider ramifications: What is of particular note is Nokia’s success in auto. IP executives in the auto industry have repeatedly commented on the large number of patents in a car, stretching way beyond cellular standard-essential patents (SEPs). But Nokia is now also asking carmakers to license WiFi too, and, by striking deals with Chinese carmakers, the company has shown that while most of its auto SEP licensing goes through Avanci, it is very capable of striking bilateral deals and engaging with carmakers alone. Avanci currently does not have an automotive WiFi pool. Given the potential for other SEP categories being implemented in cars – video streaming patents for backseat digital entertainment, or personal digital key technologies, which Proxense has already sued Hyundai, KIA and Genesis over (January 14, 2025 ip fray article), for example – even after Nokia’s cellular patent licensing opportunities expire, the company will find several more patent monetization opportunities in this industry.
Mrs. Martikainen’s blog post notes that cellular networks provide the “backbone” for many in-car services, enabling a safer and more enjoyable driving experience. In addition, WLAN enables local connectivity inside the car, allowing passengers to connect their devices and enjoy entertainment or work on the go, she writes.
Now, in total, Nokia has signed agreements with five major automotive companies covering the use of its WLAN patents in their vehicles. The company also believes 2025 will be a turning point for automotive licensing in China. Mrs. Martikainen writes:
“Either more Chinese automotive companies will sign licences, or there will be more litigation by patent holders. I am pleased to say that Chinese automotive companies are increasingly recognising the importance of respecting IPRs, and I would like to thank again our existing licensees for their professionalism in our license discussions.”
The blog post also highlighted the following successes in other categories:
- Consumer electronics: Signed agreements with three consumer electronics companies.
- Mobile devices: Signed agreements with some smaller mobile device vendors.
- IoT: Signed agreements with two Chinese vendors of point-of-sale payment devices, including with SUNMI, which had been embroiled in litigation with Nokia in China, Germany and the Unified Patent Court for several months (February 20, 2025 ip fray article). This means Nokia now has agreements with all major Western point-of-sale payment device vendors, plus three Chinese POS vendors. Mrs. Martikainen stressed that she hopes the remaining Chinese POS vendors will, like their competitors, agree to licenses on fair terms.
- Continued innovation in wireless technologies: After noting the milestone of 7,000 patent families declared as essential to 5G, Mrs. Martikainen also emphasized that the company’s experts are playing a “leading role” in the development of the 6G standard. During a LinkedIn live event in March, her team explored the value that 6G will bring, the anticipated system architecture of 6G, and the steps to be taken from now until 2030 (March 13, 2025 YouTube stream).