OnePlus & OPPO smartphone sales have been halted in Germany, patent dispute to blame
WinFuture reports that Nokia met with the Mannheim district court back in July, to discuss this issue. It is said that both OnePlus and OPPO are using 5G technologies from Nokia, and are not paying for them. The source says: “the dispute is specifically about so-called ‘essential patents,’ which are of fundamental importance for the 5G standards”. Back in July, the court said this ban can be averted if the two companies reach an agreement with Nokia. Considering we’re reporting this now, the agreement has not been reached, so both companies have been banned from selling their devices in Germany. This ban is active as of August 5, by the way.
OPPO is already working on resolving the issue
In a separate report, Android Police claims that OPPO is talking with Nokia in order to resolve this issue. We still don’t have any information regarding OnePlus, but chances are that OnePlus is doing the same thing. As expected, this ban is only for smartphones, so both companies are still allowed to sell other accessories in the country. This ban does affect smartphones from both companies, including the recently-announced OnePlus 10T. If OnePlus doesn’t manage to resolve this soon, it could basically destroy the OnePlus 10T sales.
Vivo & Realme could be in the same boat
As some of you know, both OPPO and OnePlus are owned by BBK Electronics. The same goes for Vivo and Realme, which are facing a similar ban in Germany. How can this be resolved? Well, all the companies that are infringing on Nokia’s patents will have to pay €2.50 per smartphone, and sign a worldwide licensing agreement. Chances are this problem will be resolved in the near future, but for now, OnePlus and OPPO cannot sell their phones in Germany.
