Finally, some good news for Nokia. The struggling Finnish handset giant announced this morning that it has emerged victorious from its long-running patents dispute with Apple, noting that the iPhone-maker will pay Nokia a one-off payment and pay on-going royalties. The specific terms of the new patent licence agreement between the two firms were not disclosed, but Nokia said the payments were large enough to have “a positive financial impact” on its current quarterly earnings (Q2 2011). The agreement will also result in settlement of all patent litigation between the companies, including the withdrawal of their respective complaints to the US International Trade Commission (ITC). “This settlement demonstrates Nokia’s industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market,” said Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (pictured). Nokia’s shares rose as much as 4.1 percent in Helsinki trading this morning in response to the news, reports Bloomberg.

Nokia first launched legal action against Apple in a US court in October 2009 – initially concerning the alleged infringement of Nokia patents in the iPhone –  but the case was subsequently expanded to include (in Nokia’s words) “virtually all of [Apple’s] mobile phones, portable music players, and computers.” Apple has counter-sued Nokia in a number of cases. According to previous reports, Apple has not paid Nokia any royalties since launching the iPhone in 2007, which analysts believe could mean it owes Nokia potentially billions of dollars in back payments. In its statement this morning, Nokia claims to have invested EUR43 billion in R&D over the last 20 years, building “one of the wireless industry’s strongest and broadest IPR portfolios,” with over 10,000 patent families.