Consumer electronics companies including Nokia, Apple and Sony, said they could be willing to call a truce in a decades-long battle with copyright owners over extra charges imposed on the sale of devices such as MP3 players and mobile phones – or, in times past, tape recorders.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, and Greg Brown, chief executive of Motorola, are among the signatories of a letter to the European Commission saying that they are willing to “explore new ways forward” in a dispute that has been in deadlock since the 1960s.