EU Ready to Pounce if Nokia (NOK) Abuses Patent Portfolio

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) may look to leverage its patent portfolio for extra income, but it will need to do so carefully.

According to comments made earlier today, European Union competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the agency is ready to open an investigation into Nokia should it abuse its position as a standards-essential patent holder.

Critics have said that Nokia's sale of its Devices & Services unit to Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) would give Nokia incentive to extract higher returns from this portfolio, Almunia noted. He also said Nokia would be tempted to behave like a patent troll.

Almunia said that his review of the deal didn't allow him to address concerns over the issue. He commented, If Nokia were to take illegal advantage of its patents in the future, we will open an antitrust case -– but I sincerely hope we will not have to.

Shares of Nokia are positive in early trading Monday.

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