Finnish telecommunications company Nokia announced Wednesday that a new Finnish company called HMD was licensed to produce Nokia branded mobile phones and tablets.

The new gadgets would use the Android system, the manufacturer would be Foxconn based in Taiwan, said Nokia. HMD has its head office in Helsinki.

Licensing the Nokia brand to a new producer became possible following the expiry of the restrictions set in the deal between Nokia and Microsoft in 2013.

Nokia remained the owner of the Nokia brand when it sold its hand set business to Microsoft, but was restricted in the deal from licensing it to outsiders until the end of 2015.

The new company HMD made agreements both with Microsoft and Nokia about the use of the Nokia brand name and some design rights.

The agreement HMD now has with Nokia is exclusive and valid for 10 years. The agreement with Microsoft has some conditions and only covers the use of the Nokia name in basic phones. Microsoft would continue the production of the high-end Lumia brand, originally a Nokia product name.

In a parallel move, Microsoft announced on Wednesday it had sold its basic phone business to FIH Mobile, which is a subsidiary of Foxconn. HMD and Nokia Technologies entered an agreement on cooperation with FIH. Endit

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