In July this year, a court in Mannheim, Germany ruled that OPPO had infringed two related technology patents of Nokia, and in August a month later, a court in Munich, Germany also ruled that OPPO infringed two patents. Received a Nokia patent and issued a sales ban on OPPO and OnePlus branded smartphones.
After the initial four German injunctions (two in Mannheim and two in Munich), according to a report by Jiwei.com, citing Foss Patents, the District Court of Mannheim, Germany recently confirmed that Nokia has withdrawn an order against OPPO affiliates. The Mannheim complaint in Canada concerns one of the two patents Nokia won in Munich - EP3557917 - on "method and apparatus for providing efficient discontinuous communication". A spokesperson for the court further confirmed that the court had previously informed the parties of its preliminary opinion that the patent does not appear to be actually infringed by OPPO, contrary to the Munich court ruling against OPPO.
Just a week ago, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) accepted OPPO's invalidation request to invalidate a Nokia patent because OPPO "has shown a reasonable likelihood of winning". The PTAB decision followed a preliminary opinion by the European Patent Office, according to which the European patent family in the PTAB case was deemed invalid. The preliminary opinion of the European Patent Office holds that most of the claims of the patent opposed by OPPO by Nokia lack novelty, and claim 4 lacks inventive step.
Nokia's patent litigation has exposed its fragile side under OPPO's counterattack. Foss Patents commented that it is doubtful whether Nokia's patent litigation is profitable, and it is not even clear what percentage of OPPO's sales in Germany is actually lost. T-Mobile is still selling three OPPO and two OnePlus devices. And the operator is a big customer of Nokia, and it is very doubtful that Nokia will sue them. Foss Patentshai also said that Nokia seems to have underestimated OPPO's ability and determination to defend itself.
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