Nokia and Interdigital end patent dispute

(Reuters) - The world’s top cellphone maker Nokia and InterDigital agreed to drop patent cases in the courts against each other, sending the wireless technology firm’s stock up as much as 7 percent.

The lawsuits relate to certain 3G mobile phone technology patents owned by the companies and whether they were essential to the UMTS third-generation telephony standard, InterDigital said in a statement.

The companies, which had been locked in the patents battle in the courts for the past few years, are, however, still slugging it out in the United States.

The two companies did not give any financial details of the settlement.

In July 2005, Nokia filed a complaint asking the High Court in London to declare that 31 European patents of InterDigital were not essential to the UMTS mobile technology standards.

In December 2006, InterDigital sued Nokia in the High Court on UMTS 3G standard.

InterDigital also filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in August 2007, saying that Nokia was engaged in unfair trade practice involving two InterDigital patents related to certain 3G handsets and components.

InterDigital is also involved in a patent dispute with Samsung Electronics.

Shares of InterDigital rose $1.49 to $25.86 in afternoon trade on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Purwa Naveen Raman in Bangalore; .....continued below

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