Are you interested in REQUESTS? Save with our coupons on WHATSAPP o TELEGRAM!

It is a war between OPPO and Nokia, but in the background there are Apple and Samsung: what is happening?

August 10 2022

News shakes the European smartphone market: OPPO has decided to suspend the sales of its devices in Germany. The decision comes after the ruling of a Munich court, which has given reason to Nokia on a dispute related to patents related to 5G. In the background, however, there are two giants: Apple and Samsung. Let's go and reconstruct the story in detail.

OPPO withdraws from the German market: the situation

First of all, let's try to frame what happened: two German courts have ruled, with three judgments in June, July and early August, that OPPO and its subsidiary OnePlus must pay some patent licenses to Nokia if they want to continue selling smartphones in Germany. The Chinese brand, however, believes that the Finnish company has requested an "unreasonably high" amount for renewal the day after the expiry of the 4G contract.

OPPO's response was sudden: it withdrew itself from the German market. According to some rumors leaked in these hours, the skirmish should be resolved within a few months, when aiende like Deutsche Telekom - which have thousands of OPPO units in stock to sell in bundles with subscriptions - will press for the judgments of the courts not to affect the agreements. commercial.

However, the question arises spontaneously: what if this does not happen? What if OPPO decided to keep this line and not pay for the licenses? For many, the direct consequences for the Chinese house would be poco weight, given that OPPO retains 1% of the overall market in Germany. Paying for licenses worldwide would cost her more than giving up that quota.

It is true that Nokia has started litigation against OPPO also in other countries: London, Paris, Barcelona, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, even China, India and Indonesia. That said, the judiciary will not rule in favor of Nokia in all legislations, which are profoundly different in patent matters from each other.

This dispute, however, closely concerns much larger actors, and in particular Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),, Samsung e Xiaomi. In fact, the giant with the bitten apple has yet to renew its Nokia licensing agreements. Understand how Apple would have other and much greater difficulties than OPPO to withdraw from a market, the German one, where it has huge profits. The same goes for Samsung and Xiaomi, with unit prices, profitability and market shares.

Nokia's hard fist is motivated precisely by these other decidedly bigger fish: any agreement reached with OPPO would be cited by Apple and Samsung in potential controversies against them, as a comparable licensing agreement. However, Nokia may have achieved the classic Pyrrhic victory. In fact, the Higher Regional Court of Munich could overturn the judgments of first instance for technical reasons or for issues relating to the Frand, or those fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms of contract, which prevent a patent holder from abusing his dominant position and violate antistrust legislation.

In the meantime, however, we wondered what OPPO will do. It will certainly not leave other European markets, not even the Italian one. The company made the following statements: "Our long-term commitment to the German market remains the same and we are working proactively with stakeholders to resolve the ongoing issue." Aside from the sales and marketing of suspended products on its own sales channels, "Oppo will continue to operate in Germany" and in the meantime "users can continue to use the products, access after-sales services, receive future operating system updates. . There will be no layoffs of staff ”.

Finally, the positions of other brands interested in the renewal of licenses, such as Realme and vivo, cited in turn by Nokia, should be evaluated.