Nokia announced that the planned sale of its mobile phone business to Microsoft has received regulatory clearance in China. This was the final major country to approve the deal and the last condition to completing the acquisition. Nokia and Microsoft expect the transaction to close this month as a result.
Nokia noted that the regulatory approval process involved a "thorough review" of its patent licensing practices by several competition authorities around the world. During that process, no authority challenged Nokia's compliance with its FRAND undertakings related to standard-essential patents (licensing on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms) or requested that Nokia make changes to its licensing programme or royalty terms.
In China, Microsoft agreed to a number of licensing terms as part of the ministry's approval, for a minimum eight years. These include upholding the FRAND commitments as well as refraining from seeking injunctions against alleged violators of standards-essential patents.
