Thursday, October 21, 2021

Nokia's patent assertions against OPPO in India, Russia, and Indonesia -- and OPPO countersuing in China (in addition to Germany)

5G standard-essential patent (SEP) litigation has already arrived in emerging markets, on top of the traditional venues for wireless SEP disputes. In fact, Nokia and OPPO are now embroiled in 5G patent litigation in three of the four BRIC countries (all but Brazil, and who knows when that might happen as well).

I've discovered four OPPO v. Nokia counteractions in three German courts, and I've now learned from a major Chinese website that OPPO is also countersuing Nokia in China. That article notes that Nokia generates about 8% of its worldwide revenues in China, and attributes the outbreak of litigation to a disagreement on reasonable royalties, especially since OPPO executives have publicly stated their willingness to take license on FRAND terms. It also points out that most of the companies targeted by Nokia with patent assertions don't countersue, but OPPO does have a very significant 5G patent portfolio of its own.

As a follow-up to my list of Western European Nokia v. OPPO cases, here are the lawsuits in India, Russia, and Indonesia that I've been able to find out about:

  • India: Delhi High Court

    • Case no. CS(Comm) 3042021 oover Indian non-SEPs no. 264783 (method for controlling the graphical display of a portable electronic device), 266531 (reduce interference in a terminal device based on information type), and 259932 (arranging handover; same patent family as EP1702486, which Nokia is asserting in Paris)

    • Case no. CS(Comm) 3032021 over Indian SEPs no. 286352 (system and method for providing AMR-WB DTX synchronization), 269929 (method providing multiplexing for data non-associated control channel), and 300066 (additional modulation information signaling for high speed downlink packet access; same patent family as EP2087626, which Nokia is asserting in Mannheim)

  • Indonesia: Commercial Court of Central Jakarta (Pengadilan Negeri Jakarta Pusat)

    • Case nos. 40/Pdt.Sus-HKI/2021/PN.Niaga.Jkt.Pst. and 41/Pdt.Sus-HKI/2021/PN.Niaga.Jkt.Pst over Indonesian Patent No. 000031184 (same patent family as EP2087626, which Nokia is asserting in Mannheim, and Indian Patent No. 300066, which Nokia is asserting in Delhi)

    • Case nos. 46/Pdt.Sus-HKI/2021/PN.Niaga.Jkt.Pst. and 47/Pdt.Sus-HKI/2021/PN.Niaga.Jkt.Pst. over Indonesian Patent No. 000030632 (livik.net media report; apparently from the same patent family as EP3396868, which Nokia is asserting in Munich)

  • Russia: Moscow City Court (Московский городской суд)

    • Case nos. А40-139518/2021 and А40-139528/2021 targeting different defendants (with OPPO and Realme having intervened) over a pair of Russian patents: RU2377742 (arranging handover, from the same patent family as the aforementioned EP'486) and RU2582854 (method and device for providing quick access to device functions; it appears that the European equivalent has not been granted by the EPO so far)

Nokia v. OPPO is already a huge dispute. By comparison, Nokia v. Daimler was just a warm-up exercise. But more escalation unfortunately appears likely and may already have occurred. Nokia's enforcement campaigns against HTC (until 2014) and Apple (until 2017) were even bigger by the time those settlements fell into place--and I don't even want to speculate on what might happen should Apple engage in hold-out against Ericsson...

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