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Nokia (NOK) is seeking to block the sale of most RIM (RIMM) products in the U.S., Canada and...
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Wednesday, November 28, 2012, 4:58 AM ETNokia (NOK) is seeking to block the sale of most RIM (RIMM) products in the U.S., Canada and U.K. through the enforcement of the ruling of an arbitrator, which found in favor of the Finnish company in a dispute over patents related to its wireless local access network (WLAN) technology. The arbitrator, the firm says, ruled that RIM is "not entitled to manufacture or sell WLAN products without first agreeing royalties with Nokia."
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Another positive news w/ pps being driven down after a bounce. Shorts are going strong and traders are taking in profits. Not a surprise. Im holding long, and Q4 will be the welcome party. Longs should take a break following NOK, it is worse than sleep apnea.
I have gotten beat up bad on this. Jumped in when they first announced they were going to produce a windows based smart phone. Purchase it not once but twice my average on it is over $6.00 not one of my better moves
Just hold on and wait for it to turn around I bought in at $5.60 thinking they had hit bottom, but NSN is doing well now, Nevteq is doing well, and WP8 will overtime do well also. Mr. Elop had no choice but to dump Symban and go with another OS.
You will be fine dickboy. Cut your loses if its a small position, or hold if it exceeds the write off limit.
Totally stifles innovation though. Kills the small guy, but if you're a large company not having a MAD patent portfolio is suicide.
Before Apple initiated the Great Patent Wars, cross-licensing was very very common in the tech world, with no one really wanting or caring all that much, to bother wading through all the hundreds and thousands of highly technical patents, and preferring instead to sign broad deals covering use of each other's technology in favor of moving technology forward. There were pure patent royalty companies, but they were openly known and despised as Patent Trolls. Entities that didn't produce products, but just collected royalties.
It appears that Apple felt that it was so innovative and so heavily copied that it decided to sue instead of license. And once tech heavyweights like Apple made this common practice, instead of calling it 'patent trolling' we now call it 'monetizing patent portfolios'.
The end result of all this, is that yes, innovative companies are getting a return on their innovation. But the cost is being increasingly born by the consumer.
A bill of materials for an average smartphone today may be a couple of hundred $$. The patent royalties may increase the cost to the end user by an equivalent amount in the not too distant future, and are likely already in the $40+ range for many devices.
So, patents are not really stifling competition anymore, like they did breifly when the Patent Wars first picked up steam, because licensing is happening, but the dollar value of patent royalties being paid has risen significantly over time. And the consumer ends up paying for it.
But perhaps that's the way it should be, anyway.
It is interesting to note that this year, thanks to Apple and buyout of Motorola by Google, patent portfolio is now being considered to be a valuable part of a company/business and being closely watched by analyst.
http://bit.ly/TZvuVD
If you're a stockholder pass it around. :)
Compare and contrast with the rather paternalistic, smug, prissy and Oh My God, insipid condescension oozing from the Apple intro video for the iPhone 5:
http://bit.ly/10YbnJb
They're also on twitter & facebook so I think it's a "new media" marketing campaign to start with, people will "discover" the 920 by themselves from friends etc.
Plus we've seen they're selling out everything they ship already. They could push a huge TV campaign only to fall flat on their faces unable to supply. NOK's number 2 & was number 1 just a short while ago, so you'll *know* when their campaign hits full stride.
haha
Lumia 920 in HK number 2 and 8 even they are not in stock.
The time is 28.11.2012 GMT +2 17:39
Samsung has deeper pockets and a much hefty cash reserve - so Nokia needs to fill up its product portfolio quickly, next year I think Nokia will be launching at least 2 to 3 new products in different product categories (Tablet/TV, rich accessories, location based applications/services, etc.). Just my 2 cents.
LONG-NOK & MSFT