Nokia gifts Jolla MeeGo patents: Report [update]

Just as the buzz about Jolla started to storm the Internet with its aim of building MeeGo devices, many started wondering how will company the incorporate the beautiful swipe UI of MeeGo Harmattan seen in the N9. Well, today Jolla founder Jussi Hurmola told Finnish website ItViikko that Nokia had in fact gifted the required patents to former Nokia employees who were bound to get fired so that they could start their own venture as a part of the Nokia Bridge project.
He said that Nokia should be commended for its support rather than be panned for joining the Windows Phone camp. However, it is not known what patents were handed over to Jolla so we cannot confirm if the lovely swipe UI will ever grace another device.
Hurmola also declined to say whether apps built for the Nokia N9 will be compatible with Jolla’s MeeGo hardware, though he noted that a solid apps ecosystem, which comprised a great number of quality apps was the key to building a successful smartphone platform typified by Nokia and Microsoft’s massive campaign to woo developers for the Windows Phone platform.
MeeGo was supposed to be Nokia’s next generation smartphone platform, which would have succeeded Symbian. Nokia had tied up with Intel, which was working on its own smartphone OS, to create MeeGo. However, priorities changed when Stephen Elop took over as Nokia’s CEO and found the progress on MeeGo’s development to be too slow to make a difference in the market. Elop abandoned MeeGo and went for Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform instead.
Nokia introduced only one MeeGo smartphone last year, the N9, which was launched in limited countries but got raving reviews for its UI and hardware. Nokia borrowed the N9′s laminated edge-to-edge display and polycarbonate plastic body for its first Windows Phone device, the Lumia 800.
Update: Nokia’s Mark Durrant has reached out to SlashGear and has clarified that Nokia has not gifted any patents to Jolla. He says, “We’re proud of the support from our Bridge program to start-ups founded by former Nokia people, but we have not gifted Nokia patents to any of them, including Jolla.”