The International Chamber of Commerce’s International Court of Arbitration has ruled against BlackBerry in a contract dispute with Nokia.
The court found that BlackBerry failed to make payment under a patent license contract and ruled the company pay $137 million to Nokia to settle the payment dispute.
On April 28, 2016, Nokia filed a Request for Arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration. The dispute related to whether certain payments allegedly due under a patent license contract between the companies are in fact owed to Nokia under the terms of the agreement. On November 29, 2017, the arbitration panel awarded Nokia approximately $137 million.
BlackBerry said it would take a GAAP charge on its results, but did not say when the ruling would hit its financials.
The dispute did not involve any allegations of IP infringement and BlackBerry is continuing to pursue patent infringement claims against Nokia via suits filed in both Germany and the U.S.
In a prepared statement BlackBerry said:
“BlackBerry is disappointed that the Court of Arbitration did not agree with our arguments in the case but we accept their decision. This ruling does not change BlackBerry’s assertion that Nokia is infringing on our intellectual property and we are continuing to vigorously pursue legal remedies in both the U.S. and Germany.”
BlackBerry plans to pursue a separate patent infringement case against Nokia. The company filed a patent infringement suit against the Finnish company in February of this year, alleging that Nokia uses BlackBerry’s patents in its Flexi Multiradio base stations, radio network controllers, and Liquid Radio software without properly licensing them from the company.
Nokia said in a statement today that it believes BlackBerry’s case against them is “without merit.”
