UPDATED 09:00 EDT / DECEMBER 04 2012

Patents In Apple-HTC Deal May Be Publicly Disclosed

In today’s mobile news roundup: Patents in Apple-HTC deal may be publicly disclosed; Nokia selling Espoo HQ; and Lookout gets $25M from France Telecom.

Patents in Apple-HTC deal may be publicly disclosed

According to US District Court Judge Lucy Koh, details of the Apple-HTC deal, such as the patents included in the deal may be disclosed to the public.  The only information that can be withheld are those concerned with pricing and royalty terms.

“This Court has repeatedly explained that only the pricing and royalty terms of license agreements may be sealed,” Koh wrote in a ruling. “There are compelling reasons to seal pricing and royalty terms, as they may place the parties to the agreement at a disadvantage in future negotiations, but there is nothing in the remainder of the agreement that presents a sufficient risk of competitive harm to justify keeping it from the public.”

Judge Koh added that patents included in the deal are not covered by the “compelling reasons” standards.

The issue of publicly disclosing the deal came when Samsung, who is currently locked in multiple cases against Apple in various countries, demanded a copy of the Apple-HTC deal.  Samsung says that patents, which Apple once argued that they do not license to competition, may have been included in the deal.  This could greatly help them in their fight against the Cupertino giant.

Apple and Samsung are scheduled to appear in court on Thursday to iron out the $1 billion verdict.  Apple wanted eight Samsung devices to be banned in the US, while Samsung wants the case to be thrown out due to jury misconduct.

Nokia selling Espoo HQ

In an effort to get more cash for operations, Nokia is selling their HQ building in Espoo, Finland.  But instead of relocating, the company would still continue operations in the premises but it will be on the basis of a long term lease.  The Nokia HQ was sold to Finland-based Exilion for roughly about $220 million, a huge markdown from previous estimations of about $250 million.  The lower price tag may be attributed to a great leasing deal with Exilion.  The sale is expected to conclude before the year ends.

“We had a comprehensive sales process with both Finnish and foreign investors and we are very pleased with this outcome,” Nokia’s CFO Timo Ihamuotila said about the sale.  “As we have said before, owning real estate is not part of Nokia’s core business and when good opportunities arise we are willing to exit these types of non-core assets. We are naturally continuing to operate in our head office building on a long-term basis.”

Lookout gets $25M from France Telecom

Lookout Mobile Security just secured a very sweet deal with France Telecom, the parent company of Orange mobile carrier.  Aside from securing a round of funding estimated around $20 million, Lookout’s mobile app will come pre-installed to all handsets sold by Orange.  They will start with pre-loading the devices with Lookout service bundles that offers anitvirus protection as well as tracking for Android devicesin France, Slovakia, Spain, and the UK in early 2013.

“We wanted a strategic investment because this is not just a distribution agreement,” said Xavier Perret, VP of partnerships for Orange, in an interview. “We are including Lookout into our service bundles, but we also see mobile security as an important part of the bigger security-privacy-personal data issue, and in that sense we wanted to be close in terms of positioning.”


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