Nokia received clearance from the European Commission today to acquire US-based digital map provider Navteq for US$8.1 billion, a deal the Finnish vendor hopes to complete by early next week. “Nokia has now received all approvals for the purchase and expects to close the deal within the next five business days,” AFP reports Nokia as stating. Navteq offers digital maps for 69 countries on six continents that can be read by most navigation systems available in North America and Europe. “Navteq will play a key role in our Internet service strategy,” commented Nokia’s chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. The Commission said it found that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area. The only other supplier of digital maps is Tele Atlas, which has recently agreed to be acquired by TomTom.

Meanwhile, Nokia and InterDigital today announced they have agreed to end two legal actions in the English Courts. The deal closes one of the chapters in a long-running and continuing series of Intellectual Property (IP) disputes between both vendors. The cases concerned whether some patents owned by the companies were essential to the UMTS 3G mobile telephony standard. Neither company has revealed the details of the agreement reached.