After two years and seven months of fierce war, the global patent war between OPPO and Nokia ushered in the "final chapter" - reconciliation!
On January 24, OPPO announced that it had signed a global patent cross-licensing agreement with Nokia, covering both companies' standard essential patents in 5G and other cellular communication technologies. With the signing of this agreement, the parties will close their pending litigation in all jurisdictions. According to the agreement between the two parties, the specific terms of the agreement will be kept confidential for the time being.
Behind the reconciliation between OPPO and Nokia is a confrontation of strength and an art of compromise.
Since 2021, Nokia has filed a series of patent infringement lawsuits against OPPO in nine countries, including India, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, and OPPO has also filed counter-lawsuits against Nokia in China and Europe.
It is reported that Nokia holds about 35,000 patents, covering wireless communications, video coding, display technology and other fields, and is an important member of the global patent holders. Nokia is also one of the main enablers of 5G technology, with more than 3,000 5G-related patents, accounting for 16% of the global 5G patent share.
The huge patent pool is like a company's technology fish pond, which is an important embodiment of the company's hard power. In recent years, in order to consolidate the accumulation of patented technologies and increase the negotiation capital with relevant patentees, OPPO has also been intensively strengthening the patent layout of key core technologies, with remarkable results.
As of December 31, 2023, OPPO has deployed 5G communication standard patents in more than 40 countries and regions around the world, completed a total of 5,900+ global patent applications, declared 3,300+ 5G standard patents at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and submitted more than 11,000 standard manuscripts in 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Program).
Having an exclusive patent pool around the world is only one of the bargaining chips, and the key point is that Nokia's patent fees are too high, which violates the FRAND principles (fairness, reasonableness and non-discrimination).
In December 2023, the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court confirmed the global fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing rates of Nokia's 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G SEP portfolios in its judgment, and determined that the global cumulative rate of 5G standards in the mobile phone industry is 4.341%-5.273%.
There is a considerable difference between the license fee determined by the judgment of the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court and the claim of 3 euros per unit asserted by Nokia. This became one of the opportunities for Nokia to reach a settlement with OPPO.
A month after the Chongqing verdict was issued, OPPO's counterclaim in Germany also won. On January 16, the German Federal Patent Court announced that all of OPPO's 5G standard essential patents EP3445093 valid. The patent was used by OPPO to sue Nokia in a court in Munich, Germany, and to apply for an injunction against Nokia.
According to the financial report, Nokia's operating performance is under pressure, and the financial calculation for the whole year of 2023 has failed to meet the target, and the performance of net sales, operating margin and cash flow has not reached the expected target.
Under multiple pressures such as the judgment of the Chongqing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, the judgment of the German Federal Patent Court, and the pressure on the company's operating performance, Nokia chose to compromise and reached a global settlement with OPPO at an amount far lower than the price of its patent fees.
诺基亚服软妥协,OPPO顺利"通关",互利共赢。
With the formation of the global market competition pattern, the patent war between enterprises will become a norm, and conflict is not necessarily a bad thing, because the patent war is also a means to force enterprises to cultivate internal skills, which will be more conducive to enterprises to accelerate the layout of intellectual property and use a reasonable legal system to occupy the global market, rather than only limited to domestic development.
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