Nokia said that LG Electronics “agreed to take” a royalty-bearing licence for the Finnish company’s smartphone patent portfolio, as it looks to monetise its intellectual property following the sale of its Devices & Services business last year.

In a statement, Nokia said that the South Korean company is the “latest of more than 60 licensees” for its 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, and is the first major player to join its programme since the sale of the handset business to Microsoft in 2014.

Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies, said: “We’ve worked constructively with LG Electronics and agreed a mutually beneficial approach, including the use of independent arbitration to resolve any differences. This agreement sets the scene for further collaboration between our companies in future.”

Since the sale of its devices unit, Nokia has been looking to grow its patent licensing business, with a significantly changed dynamic between it and device makers – as it no longer is a direct competitor.

In a presentation late last year, it said that eight out of the top 15 device makers held licences, with seven unlicensed – a total that will now have shifted again.

While the company has a broad set of standard essential payments, it also has patents related to software, user interface, multimedia and mapping.

With regard to the LG deal, Nokia said that royalty payment obligations will be subject to commercial arbitration, expected to conclude “within a 1-2 year timeframe”. Other terms are confidential.