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Context: Earlier this year, Nokia signed a patent agreement with Amazon (March 31, 2025 ip fray article), following a long-running patent infringement dispute with the tech giant that spanned the U.S., Germany, India, the UK, and the Unified Patent Court (UPC). This was one of five video streaming deals it has signed in recent months, including a couple prior to Amazon that were struck without litigation – and it was the first case in which the other party was known.
What’s new: In a blog post today, Nokia’s interim lead of New Segments licensing programs, Vipul Mehrotra, announced the company has signed a patent licensing agreement with U.S. pay-TV provider Starz (October 27, 2025 blog post by Nokia).
Direct impact and wider ramifications: This deal is good news for Nokia, which is simultaneously pursuing litigation against Paramount in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and the Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) State Court, enforcing 13 of its video-related patents in the former (August 22, 2025 ip fray article), and the Unified Patent Court’s Mannheim Local Division (LD) and the Landgericht München I (Munich I Regional Court) (October 1, 2025 ip fray article). Nokia is also in the middle of a patent battle with Acer, ASUS and Hisense in the UPC (April 1, 2025 ip fray article), Germany, the United States (April 11, 2025 ip fray article), Brazil, and India over video patents. The defendants are pursuing an interim-license declaration in the High Court of Justice for England & Wales, which held a hearing last week on the matter (October 21, 2025 ip fray article).
In the blog post, Mr. Mehrotra noted that deals such as the one with Starz “fuel the virtuous circle of innovation”. He also referred to the ongoing dispute with Paramount:
“Our preference is to avoid litigation, but Paramount left us with no choice. We hope that Paramount engages with us to conclude an agreement under which they will pay for the use of our technologies in their streaming services.”
And, Mr. Mehrotra added, Nokia remains “prepared” to pursue legal action against others who choose not to timely conclude licenses on fair terms.