Carl Pei says Essential acquisition was all about the patents

Yesterday news broke out that Carl Pei’s new venture Nothing has acquired the Essential smartphone brand. The details were unraveled in filings with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office and detailed the IP transfer was completed on January 6, 2021.

Now, Pei himself confirmed yesterday’s reports and clarified that the whole deal was centered around the patents held by Essential. He further clarified that there is, ahem, nothing to share regarding Nothing’s plans with the newly acquired Esenetial patents. Though with the new evidence, it’s more likely we’ll see Nothing in the smartphone business sooner or later.

Yes, the rumors are true, we’ve acquired Essential’s trademarks. Today, we are all in on Nothing, and don’t have anything to share at the moment regarding our plans with Essential.

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) February 17, 2021

Earlier this month, Nothing revealed its plans to launch its first wireless earphones this summer. Back then Pei described his vision of creating an ecosystem of devices that connect to each other and work seamlessly with one another. The newly confirmed Essential IP takeover is certainly intriguing and could potentially lead to some interesting hardware down the line.