The Microsoft/Nokia deal is still in the process of being approved by regulatory boards and governments around the world, which is unsurprising given how big both companies are and how their business spans across multiple countries.
So far for the most part, most countries have given the deal their blessing, including China who had initially expressed their reservations regarding patents and licensing fees. Well now it looks like we can add Taiwan to the list of countries that have given the deal the green light, but it turns out that there are some conditions attached.
According to Taiwan’s FTC (Fair Trade Commission), there are two conditions that they laid out that both companies had to agree to in order for the deal to be approved (at least by Taiwan). One is that Microsoft is not allowed to hike licensing fees post-deal in order to encourage OEMs to adopt Windows Phone over Android.
The other stipulation is to Nokia which requests that the Finnish company continue to licensing their standard essential patents under FRAND principles. As it stands there are many Android OEMs who pay Microsoft licensing fees for using certain technologies in their Android devices, so the first condition is to prevent Microsoft from using their newly acquired patents from Nokia to jack up prices which would not be completely out of the question.
It is unclear how long these rules are expected to stay in effect for, but we can only imagine that over time Microsoft/Nokia will probably start to stray from the rules, but perhaps the mobile landscape by then will look very different and it might not matter so much then.