HTC will pay Nokia to settle smartphone patent dispute

General manager of the Nokia factory in Romania, John Guerry, casts a shadow on a banner at the new Nokia factory in Jucu, central Romania, during the official opening of the first production line Monday Feb. 11 2008.Nokia last month announced that it would close its manufacturing plant in Bochum, in the industrial Ruhr region, a move that likely will result in the loss of 2,300 jobs and has infuriated German unions and politicians.(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Taiwan’s largest smartphone maker, HTC, will make payments to Finnish company Nokia Oyj to end a patent dispute and avoid being kept out of the U.S. market, the state-run Central News Agency said.

HTC and Nokia reached an agreement to settle all pending litigation.

The deal came ahead of an announcement expected Monday by the U.S. International Trade Commission on whether it would issue an import ban on HTC devices.

“HTC will make payments to Nokia and the collaboration will involve HTC’s LTE patent portfolio, further strengthening Nokia’s licensing offering,” HTC said.

It did not reveal financial terms or other details of the settlement.

“We are very pleased to have reached a settlement and collaboration agreement with HTC, which is a longstanding licensee for Nokia’s standards essential patents,” Paul Melin, chief intellectual property officer at Nokia, was quoted as saying.

Nokia began legal action against HTC in 2012, to stop the unauthorized use of Nokia’s proprietary innovations.