Nokia and Oppo strike licensing deal that ends all litigation
Mobile communication firms make peace with multi-year agreement | Covers cellular tech, including 5G SEPs | Nokia says agreement will provide stability to its licensing business | Deal could reopen European market to Oppo after sales halted.
Nokia and Oppo have signed a multi-year cross-licence deal which resolves all pending patent litigation between the pair in all jurisdictions, they announced today.
Under the agreement, Oppo will pay royalties to Nokia, along with catch-up payments to cover periods of non-payment during the disputes.
This is the fifth major smartphone agreement that Nokia has signed in the past 13 months—following Honor, also this month; Samsung and Apple in 2023; and Huawei in 2022.
Long-running dispute
The multi-jurisdictional patent clash between the two smart device manufacturers kicked off when Oppo’s licence agreement with Nokia ended in June 2021.
At the time, the pair were unable to reach an agreement on new terms and Nokia sued in various courts, including Germany, France, Brazil, the UK, India and other jurisdictions globally.
Most recently, in December 2023, a Chinese court weighed in on a FRAND dispute between the two companies, ruling that Guangdong-based Oppo was obliged to pay for the entire unlicensed period during which it used the Finnish company’s technology, according to a statement issued to WIPR.
But Oppo promptly claimed that the judgment backed its bid to pay lower fees for Nokia’s standard-essential patents (SEPs).
Oppo’s European market
While the terms of the agreement remain confidential as agreed between the parties, Nokia said that the licence covers its “fundamental inventions” in cellular technologies. This includes cross-licensing for 5G SEPs.
The deal could reopen the European market to Oppo and its subsidiary OnePlus after sales were halted in Germany due to the legal disputes between Oppo and Nokia.
Jenni Lukander, president of Nokia Technologies, said that the firm is “delighted” with the agreement with Oppo, adding that it “reflects the mutual respect for each other’s intellectual property and Nokia’s investments in R&D and contributions to open standards”.
“Oppo is one of the leading companies in the global smartphone market and we look forward to working together to bring further innovation to their users around the world.
“The new agreement—along with the other major smartphone agreements we have concluded over the past year—will provide long-term financial stability to our licensing business.”
Feng Ying, the Chinese firm’s chief intellectual property officer, said that the agreement “lays the foundation for future collaboration between Oppo and Nokia”.
“Oppo continues to advocate for reasonable royalty fees and a long-term approach to intellectual property that supports the resolution of disputes through amicable negotiations and mutual respect for the value of all intellectual property,” he added.
Nokia’s long-term outlook
Nokia said in a statement that the agreement “is consistent with the assumptions Nokia has disclosed in the commentary with respect to Nokia Technologies’ long-term outlook in its Financial Report for Q3 issued on October 19, 2023”.
It added that it will begin recognising net sales from this agreement, including catch-up payments covering non-payment during the dispute period, in Q1 2024.
“Nokia Technologies is progressing towards the conclusion of the smartphone renewal cycle and is making good progress in its growth areas of automotive, consumer electronics, IoT and multimedia,” added the firm.
Nokia says it remains confident that its annual net sales run-rate will return to €1.4 to €1.5 billion ($1.5 to $1.6 billion) in the mid-term.
Nokia’s patent portfolio, it revealed, is based on its €140 billion ($152 billion) investment in R&D since 2000, and is composed of approximately 20,000 patent families, including more than 6,000 patent families declared essential to 5G.
Oppo is both an innovator and implementer of technology standards and is a rights holder of 5G SEPs.
As of year-end 2023, Oppo reports that it has deployed 5G communication standard patents in more than 40 countries and regions. This includes a total of more than 5,900 patent families globally; more than 3,300 5G standard patents declared to ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute); and more than 11,000 standard documents submitted to 3GPP (the 3rd Generation Partnership Project).
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