• Diyan
• On July 28, 2017

HMD Global now owns many Windows Phone design patents

HMD Global, the Finnish start-up that recently resurrected the Nokia smartphone brand with Android, has got the rights to use around 500 patents, formerly used by Microsoft on Windows phone. These patents have recently been transferred from Microsoft Mobile Oy to HDM Global Oy, which means some of them may soon appear on the Nokia phones running Android.

Among the most interesting patent is the Lumia Camera UI design that is regarded as the most intuitive camera app on the market, and certainly, one of the best feature in Windows Phone 8.1. The same design was used by Microsoft to create the default Windows 10 camera app, while the old Lumia Camera app was retired.

But Microsoft is not selling to HDM all the products they have, including ClearBlack and PureView. PureView remains in the possession of Microsoft for now, although the company could always licence the technology to Nokia for future high-end smartphones with Carl Zeiss lens.

While this news may not be very pleasant for us as Windows phone fans, at least the features we’ve loved from the old days may continue to live in a new environment.