Huawei is licensing Nokia technology
Despite the existing restriction imposed by the US government, Nokia Corporation announced a new patent licensing agreement with Huawei in an unusually short two-sentence press release. According to Nokia, the new patent licensing agreement remains confidential between parties.
Still, we can speculate that it could be related to the new “XMAGE” variable aperture camera on the latest Huawei Mate 50 Pro as both companies can no longer work together on 5G. The lack of exchanges between both parties on the press release may also indicate that the license may have been done last minute (and possibly, to avoid potential litigation).
Nokia has an existing patent for a variable aperture camera (US20070216803A1) filed in March of 2006 and granted in 2009. The patent is currently assigned to Nokia Technologies Oy with adjusted expiration of 2027. Usually, patents will expire 20 years after it was filed if no further development or improvement from the original invention is being made. Currently, the US20070216803A1 patent is marked as “active”.