Simon Phipps looks at Microsoft’s Nokia acquisition with an emphasis on Nokia’s patents. “By divesting its devices business yet retaining ownership of the patents that relate to them, Nokia has immunized itself from retaliatory action when it makes future patent offensives. In the past, a company such as Google — most likely Nokia’s primary target — could retaliate by attacking Nokia’s infringement of its own patents, but that line of defense is no longer available since all the products now belong to Microsoft. That’s the background to Nokia’s statement that it ‘plans to continue to build Nokia’s patent portfolio [and] to expand its industry-leading technology licensing program.’“
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