Oppo and Nokia have reached a cross-licensing agreement, ending their long-standing dispute. The deal permits Oppo to sell its devices in key European markets, including Germany.
In 2022, Oppo was fined for violating Nokia’s intellectual property. The global patent cross-licensing agreement between Oppo and Nokia covers standard-essential patents (SEPs) in 5G and other cellular technologies.With this deal in place, Oppo can now sell all its phones in Germany.
The two companies had been involved in multiple patent lawsuits across 12 countries since 2021, as they failed to agree on the price for Oppo to use Nokia’s 5G patent portfolios on the Chinese firm’s smartphones. In some markets, court rulings in favour of Nokia have resulted in Oppo being banned from selling to local customers. After losing a patent infringement lawsuit to Nokia in Germany in 2022, Oppo halted smartphone sales there and delisted most products from its local website.
“Under the agreement Oppo will make royalty payments, along with catch-up payments to cover the periods of non-payment,” Nokia said in a statement. “The agreement resolves all pending patent litigation between the parties, in all jurisdictions.”
“Following the agreement, both parties will resolve all pending litigation in all jurisdictions,” Oppo said in a statement.
The deal finally spells an end to the litigation between the two companies. So, Oppo, which is also the parent-company of OnePlus, would be able to resume the sales of devices that were halted in some European markets. So, the recently announced smartphones of the two brands – Find X7 and OnePlus 12 series might finally be made available in the affected markets.
“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,” Jenni Lukander, president of Nokia Technologies, said in the statement.