Alexander Poltorak commented on the spate of patent lawsuits recently filed by Nokia in a Reuters article that was also published in the Chicago Tribune, The Guardian UK, and Yahoo! News, among other publications. ("Ailing Nokia falls back on patents legacy" Reuters.com - May 13, 2012)
Article excerpt: Nokia already earns 500 million euros ($647 million) a year from its patent royalties in key areas of mobile telephony and some analysts say a more determined application of its patent rights could boost its income by hundreds more millions of euros a year. Alternatively, a sale could generate billions of euros.
Either way, at a time when its future is being threatened by falling sales and a loss of market share, Nokia's patents have emerged as the struggling company's most valuable and stable assets. Their full exploitation could be crucial for its longer-term survival.
"They should be doing this. The only question is: Why did they wait so long?" said Alexander Poltorak, chief executive of patent consultancy General Patent Corp.
Nokia has already served warning to newcomers in the mobile industry with whom it doesn't yet have licensing agreements, saying it aimed to boost its royalty revenue. Last week it took action against two makers of devices based on Google Inc's Android software.
...So far Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop has said there were no plans for a sale, a stance that industry experts said made sense given its success in earlier patent litigation.
"You only get about 10 percent through a sale, compared with enforcing the patent," Poltorak said. "Nokia can make much more money enforcing the patents."