After an entire fiasco between Nokia and OPPO (and OnePlus) led to the latter being banned from Germany, the former giant isn’t anywhere near finished. It is unclear whether the company is just using its patents to recoup its losses at this point or if there is a deeper meaning behind it.

Once again, the issue circulated around Nokia’s Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). Basically, SEPs are patented standards created by a Standard Setting Organization (SSO), which should lawfully also receive royalties in the situations wherein their SEPs are used. Nokia and OPPO (and OnePlus) had a partnership that lasted from 2018 to 2021 granting them permissions, but these expired when the collaboration ended.

The latter companies attempted to file countersuits but were slapped with 9 cases of SEP violations over 4G/5G radio technologies. As such, a cease-and-desist order was filed which effectively prevents the sale of these brands in Germany.

Nokia is once again doing the same to OPPO and effectively, OnePlus, in the Australian market, as well as other European and Asian areas. At this point, we wouldn’t be surprised if there was some bad blood between these companies but we’re not one to draw conclusions. Business is business, regardless if its making money through product sales or patent penalties.

However, these litigations are getting costly for Nokia who has to sue a giant like OPPO. This could come back to bite them later on. The detailed financial report explaining the complications across Nokia’s internal entities can be found here.

Whether or not the results will be the same is another question. After all, if Nokia is successful in getting OPPO sales banned in other countries, this would be a big hit financially. We doubt that these firms would take anything lying down, which could lead to some interesting court battles. We’ll have to wait and see.