Chinese court sides with Oppo over Nokia patent dispute

Oppo and Nokia have been in a 5G patent dispute for over two years. The issue is about royalties and how much is the Chinese manufacturer should pay the Finnish network company, and one consequence of the disagreement was the phone maker being blocked from selling its devices in Europe.

The dispute was taken to the Chongqing First Intermediate People's Court, asking the tribunal to set global FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) licensing fees. The court's decision was recently made public, and Oppo announced it agrees with the order and is willing to pay the sum - $0.707 to $1.151 per unit, depending on different markets.

This is the first-ever ruling, confirming the range of the aggregated royalty burden of 5G standard essential patents for the mobile phone industry, said Oppo in a press release. It should provide guidelines for further discussions in the industry, as well as related industries, such as IoT or smart cars.

The court's decision does not mean, however, that Nokia is okay with the fees. The equipment maker and one of the biggest 5G patent owners in the world said it will appeal the ruling, which is “limited to the Chinese jurisdiction only and as such represents only one view.”

Nokia added that “courts outside of China have confirmed Oppo is in breach of its commitments as a user of Nokia's technology in open standards,” and the company is confident of its position in the dispute, hoping it would be resolved soon.

Source | Via