In April this year, the Mannheim District Court in Germany ruled in favor of Nokia in the patent case against vivo, which involved Nokia’s 4G standard essential patents (SEP).
According to the latest news from Vivo’s German website on May 30, Vivo has decided to temporarily suspend the sale of its products in the German market
The announcement on vivo Germany’s official website reads as follows:
vivo fully respects intellectual property rights and is committed to continuous innovation through extensive research and development. In recent years, vivo has entered into cross-licensing agreements with many leading companies. We have been in negotiations with Nokia to renew our mutual licenses, but so far no agreement has been reached. We strongly believe that Nokia has not fulfilled its obligation to provide licenses on "FRAND" (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.
We are disappointed with the Mannheim District Court's first instance decision of April 6, 2023, and have suspended sales and marketing of the relevant products in Germany following Nokia's implementation of these decisions.
We have appealed these decisions and will review other options. In the meantime, we are in close contact with Nokia to complete licensing negotiations under the terms of FRAND.
Our long-term commitment to the German market remains intact. Users can rely on customer support and future software updates for their devices. There is no impact on our business outside of Germany.The official website of Vivo Germany and found that the site has now taken down all product introductions, leaving only the home page, and support two pages.
▲ The current official website of Vivo Germany
▲ The official website of Vivo Germany in April this year
It is worth mentioning that in July last year, the Mannheim District Court in Germany ruled that OPPO infringed on Nokia’s patents and granted Nokia a cease and desist order against OPPO, and some of OPPO and OnePlus devices were banned from sale in Germany.
In response, the person in charge of OPPO responded that sales of some products will be suspended in Germany, and he also said, “The company firmly opposes unreasonably high patent fees and the malicious behavior of using litigation to coerce licensees to negotiate and accept unreasonably high license fees.” He also mentioned that OPPO respects intellectual property rights and advocates reasonable fees, and advocates resolving intellectual property disputes between licensors and licensees in an amicable and negotiated manner, respecting each other’s patent values.
