As you might have heard by now, Microsoft has officially acquired the mobile division of Nokia. This means that Nokia’s other arms and divisions are still retained by the Finnish company and while they aren’t making mobile phones anymore, it has been rumored that they plan to re-enter the consumer market with wearables.
That being said, the sale of the cellphone division to Nokia did not cover the patent portfolio of Nokia, and now that Nokia has been classified as a non-practicing entity, many are worried that they might end up being a patent troll by using their wide array of patents to seek out litigations against companies.
While we doubt that will be happening, it is a scenario that Samsung’s attorneys have acknowledge. According to a report from Business Korea, Samsung’s attorney basically acknowledged the might of Nokia’s patent portfolio, admitting that they might not have enough clout to take them on.
“The fact that Nokia does not manufacture mobile phones any longer signifies that we cannot file a countersuit against it and we have to pay royalties to it. Besides, we are in no position to circumvent, because Nokia owns a large number of basic and standard patents.” Like we said, we doubt the patent troll path will be one Nokia will be walking down, but at the same time it looks like their patent portfolio could be enough to keep them in business for a while.