Context:
- Nokia’s most recent major patent license deal to become known was the settlement with Geely (May 21, 2026 ip fray article).
- From time to time, Nokia executive Susanna Martikainen writes about the progress of the company’s licensing programs (March 31, 2026 ip fray article).
- Over the past six months, Nokia’s stock price has roughly doubled (and tripled over the course of a year) because of its role as a key supplier to the AI economy (June 10, 2026 LinkedIn post by ip fray). As Sisvel’s chief communications officer Joff Wild noted on LinkedIn, patent licensing revenues were key to Nokia’s ability to reposition itself.
What’s new: In today’s corporate blog post, Nokia’s chief licensing officer Susanna Martikainen reveals some new (and reiterates some previously-known) information on the company’s licensing programs. These are the new developments we’ve noticed:
- 12 Chinese automakers have a license to Nokia’s wireless technologies, some through Avanci and some through bilateral agreements.
- Besides the known settlement with Hisense (January 8, 2026 ip fray article), Nokia has “concluded deals with other TV makers and consumer electronics makers this year”.
- In the Internet of Things (IoT) space, the blog post notes that “other IoT device verticals” are now also being licensed, such as ” an elevator manufacturer covering the use of our connectivity technologies in their elevator cars, which enables remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, and incident response communication” (and other elevator companies are already licensed).
- Nokia continues to contribute to standards development, be it 6G, 3GPP Rel-20 (AI-powered mobile communications), Wi-Fi 9 (here, too, there is increasingly an AI connection), the Joint Video Experts Team (JVET), or the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG) regarding “Gaussian Splat Coding to make immersive 3D and volumetric video more practical across devices”.
Direct impact & wider ramifications: These developments demonstrate that wireless and video technologies are ever more pervasive. This is also a case study for the IP-driven virtuous cycle where one round of innovations generates revenues to fund the next.
Automotive licensing channels
The announcement says: “12 Chinese automakers now have a license to Nokia’s technology, either through bilateral agreements or via the Avanci pool.”
The distribution is not known. A few days ago, Avanci announced that it has signed up 11 Chinese car makers (June 7, 2026 ip fray article). That means there is presently one Chinese automaker that has a Nokia license, but not yet an Avanci license. This proves the optionality of Avanci’s licensing program, a fact that appeared to be lost on some UK Supreme Court (UKSC) judges in their ivory tower (just like they were — unlike this website’s esteemed readers — unaware of the interjurisdictional friction that their Unwired mistake has created).
If an automaker has an Avanci license and a bilateral license, a discount is applied in order to avoid duplicative royalties. Theoretically, the bilateral licensor could also agree with the licensee to rescind a bilateral license in favor of the pool license, but we have not heard of such a case yet (which does not mean that it has never happened).
Pending disputes
The corporate blog post also makes reference to some pending disputes:
- Nokia “remain[s] confident about [its] position in [its] on-going litigation campaign against Acer and Asus”.
- Also, Nokia “look[s} forward to the rate setting trial in the UK later this year which will set a global license for both Warner Bros’ and Paramount’s streaming services”, with Nokia being “confident the UK court will endorse Nokia’s valuation”.