Nokia lawsuit forces Oppo and OnePlus out of the German market

Enlarge / Oppo's store in Germany has been stripped of all phone info (translated). (credit: Ron Amadeo)

Many Chinese brands have somehow escaped the global smartphone patent wars, but Oppo and OnePlus are feeling the pain in Germany due to a Nokia patent lawsuit. As the site Juve Patent reports, Nokia received two favorable patent rulings last week, and OnePlus and its parent company Oppo were ordered to cease and desist their infringement. For now, ceasing infringement means shutting down sales in Germany.

This is Nokia Corporation, the cellular infrastructure company, not HMD, which licenses the "Nokia" brand for smartphones. Nokia and Oppo used to have a patent licensing agreement, but it recently expired. Just as we've seen in cable carriage disputes, the two companies were in negotiations for renewal, but disagreements over the price led to a deal not happening. Oppo told its side of this familiar story to Juve Patent, saying, "The day after the 4G agreement between Oppo and Nokia expired, Nokia immediately went to court. They had previously demanded an unreasonably high contract renewal fee."

The OnePlus store just shows an error message in Germany. (credit: Ron Amadeo)

The court cases are still ongoing, and appeals are still possible, but Oppo has taken the proactive step of shutting down all sales in Germany. Oppo's German site has been stripped of all phone info and now only hosts a message saying (through translation) that "product information is currently not available on our website." The site also mentions that Oppo products will continue to work, and support channels will keep running. OnePlus' site still lists phone info, but the store now displays an error page if you try to see phone listings.