Nokia will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from Apple, following the settlement of along-running legal dispute between the two companies-- a bit of good luck for the currently troubled Nokia. 

The patent dispute (going on since 2009) involved both companies accusing each other of stealing all sorts of using each other's technologies-- specifically touchscreen scrolling, wifi, multitasking, data synchronisation, call quality, positioning and Bluetooth accessory usage. 

Apple will now pay a one-time payment and on-going royalties as part of the agreement. The contract's specific terms remain confidential though (although the Financial Times speculates the initial payment alone could cost anything from $300m to $600m).

What will Nokia do next? Judging from what Nokia CEO Steven Elop has to say, it will "...focus on further licensing oppurtunities in the mobile-communications market..." with the likes of Samsung and HTC (if not Google itself) as potential targets to what one might unkindly refer to as "patent trolling". 

One can expect to learn more about Apple's payments to Nokia next month, when the company announces its Q2 2011 earnings. 

Go Nokia Enters into Patent License Agreement with Apple