In shock move, China's Oppo and OnePlus BANNED in Germany!

China smartphone makers Oppo and OnePlus have been banned and will no longer be available in Germany. Know what this ban is all about.

Oppo and OnePlus banned in Germany over the ongoing dispute with Nokia. (Amritanshu / HT Tech)

Top China smartphone manufacturers Oppo and OnePlus have been banned in Germany! Oppo and OnePlus smartphones will no longer be available in Germany. This comes from a report in Nokiamob.net which says the Mannheim Regional Court in Germany has ruled in favour of Nokia against its ongoing patent dispute with Oppo and OnePlus. Back in 2021, Nokia sued Oppo in four different countries in Asia and Europe, including India, UK, France, and Germany after failing to reach an agreement on using patented Nokia technology on Oppo devices without licenses.

However, this is not a permanent ban, but Oppo and OnePlus may no longer be able to sell their devices in Germany due to the infringement of Nokia's European patent EP 17 04 731. Nokia has now marked its first victory in the patent dispute against Oppo. But what is this dispute and lawsuit all about?

Nokia and Oppo Lawsuit: What it is about 

A German court in Mannheim announced a suit in favour of Nokia in its 4G/5G patent dispute against Oppo and its sister brand OnePlus. This comes after the breakdown in discussions over the patent of 4G (LTE) and 5G connectivity between Nokia and Oppo smartphone manufacturing brands.

Nokia had sued Oppo over 9 Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) and five implementation patents in three regional German Courts, a GizmoChina report mentioned. It is worth noting that Nokia is the standard-bearer in the 5G SEPs segment that too with a huge investment of around 129 billion Euros. Additionally, it has a number of patents in this field which have got several settlements in recent years.

This ruling by the German Regional Court is the first ruling regarding the disputed patents that granted Nokia a cease-and-desist order against Oppo, which simply means Oppo and the OnePlus will no longer be able to sell smartphones there.

Oppo is not the first brand...

Oppo is not the only brand to be sued by Nokia. Back in May 2017, Apple paid $2 billion to Nokia in a settlement over a patent lawsuit for infringing Nokia's patents as well as patents from the Nokia-owned companies, NSN and Alcatel-Lucent. However, the dispute was settled quickly and now they collaborate on several technologies. Besides Oppo and Apple, Nokia has also filed a patent infringement lawsuit against another tech company Lenovo in four countries including the US, Brazil, India, and Germany. After a year of dispute, it was finally settled by the companies in April 2022.