The Nokia name will return to the mobile phone market after a company backed by one of its former executives teamed up with manufacturer Foxconn to buy the rights to the brand for mobile devices. Nokia, once the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones, was wrong footed by the rise of smartphones and eclipsed by Apple and Samsung. It sold its entire handset business to Microsoft Corp in 2014 and now focuses on telecoms network equipment. But it held on to its phone patents with a view to eventually striking a licensing deal, though it had to wait due to a non-compete deal with Microsoft.

Nokia had signed an exclusive 10-year licensing agreement for newly formed Finnish company HMD global Oy to create Nokia-branded smartphones and tablets. HMD is owned by Smart Connect LP, a private equity fund run by former Nokia executive Jean-Francois Baril, and its management.

The products will be made by Taiwan’s Foxconn and Nokia will receive an undisclosed royalty on sales, covering both brand and intellectual property rights. Microsoft announced simultaneously it would sell its entry-level phones business to HMD and Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile for $350 million.

HMD, which will focus on branding and design in the partnership with Foxconn, said it would put 500 million euros ($564 million) into marketing over the next three years.