By Dominic Chopping
Nokia signed a multiyear patent cross-license agreement with Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, bringing to an end a yearslong dispute over the Chinese smartphone maker’s use of the Finnish company’s patented 5G technology in its devices.
Nokia and Oppo had a 5G patent license agreement that ran from 2018 to the end of June 2021, but after failing to agree on a new deal, Nokia initiated legal action in a number of countries.
Wednesday’s agreement resolves all pending patent litigation between the parties in all jurisdictions and will see Oppo make royalty payments along with catch-up payments to cover the periods of non-payment, Nokia said.
Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed, but Nokia said it will begin recognizing net sales from the deal in the first quarter of 2024.
Nokia Technologies, the unit that houses the Finnish telecom equipment provider’s patent portfolio, is confident that its annual net sales run-rate will return to 1.4 billion to 1.5 billion euros ($1.52 billion-$1.63 billion) in the midterm, it said.
Nokia said its patent portfolio is built on more than EUR140 billion of research and developments investments since 2000 and is composed of around 20,000 patent families, including more than 6,000 patent families deemed essential to 5G.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
