Sales of Oppo and OnePlus in Germany banned, and it could be just the beginning

Problems in sight for Oppo and OnePlus: the two Chinese companies were forced to stop sales of their own smartphone in Germany following a dispute with Nokia regarding some 5G patents. After losing the appeal to this lawsuit which has been going on for years now, Oppo and OnePlus will no longer be able to sell devices on German soiland the ban could expand to other countries as well.

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The patent dispute between Nokia and Oppo, as anticipated, has been going on for several years: in July, the Mannheim district court ordered the two companies to agree on rights to use patent technologiesbut this did not happen due to requests “unreasonably high” by the Finnish giant. Following this, the Munich regional court imposed the ban on selling smartphones starting from 5 August.

The effects of this ban are already visible: on the German site of Oppo all references to the purchase of smartphones were removed, and the same thing happened on the OnePlus site. Both companies will be able to continue to sell other productssuch as covers or earphones, while for smartphones it will be necessary to rely on third-party stores with devices still present in their warehouses.

However, no problem for users who already use Oppo and OnePlus smartphones: the devices will continue to work without problems, support will still be guaranteed, and planned updates will also be releasedas expressly stated by Oppo on its website.

It is definitely a serious problem for Oppowhich according to some estimates holds 10% of the German smartphone market and that it ships every year over two million smartphones in the area. The solution for Oppo and OnePlus would be that of pay € 2.50 as patent licensing rights for single smartphone sold worldwide (therefore not only in Germany), a decidedly expensive operation. Companies may therefore prefer to exit the German market altogether to avoid shelling out this amount.

However, it should be noted that Nokia is suing BBK companies (that is to say Oppo, OnePlus, Realme and Vivo) also in other European countries as regards the use of the aforementioned patents: in particular, if the court rules in favor of Nokia, the sales ban could also be extended into France, Finland, Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.