Oppo withdraws from Germany After Sales Ban

After a patent dispute that has lasted several years, the Chinese manufacturer Oppo is said to have drawn a line and decided to withdraw from the German smartphone market. There is no statement from the group yet. That reports the Wirtschaftswoche in an exclusive report. It says that on Friday Oppo already fundamentally revised the offers on its website and no longer offers smartphones.

First court order in July

Behind this is a dispute over 5G patents. In early July, it was announced that the Mannheim court had settled a patent dispute in Nokia’s favor and found that Oppo did not have valid licenses for the 5G technology used. The court had threatened to ban the sale if both parties failed to reach an agreement.

After it became known, Oppo initially filed new appeals to avert such a case. So at first it looked like a case of the kind seen many times before, complete with saber rattling just before a match. After that, coverage went silent – no new details in the patent dispute leaked out – until Oppo review website. All smartphone subpages are gone. As Wirtschaftswoche has learned, Oppo has responded to a new verdict. Munich Court 1 has now issued a sales ban against the Oppo and OnePlus brands.

Oppo’s homepage now says:

Product information is currently not available on our website. Q: Can I continue to use Oppo products without restrictions, access support, and receive future updates? Answer: Yes, you can continue to use your Oppo products indefinitely, access support and of course, you will also receive all future updates.

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What exactly this means for sales and for existing customers in the future is still unclear. According to Wirtschaftswoche, resellers are allowed to resell the devices and import supplies from other countries for resale. Whether Oppo will actually pull out “forever” or whether the court’s decision will be enforced in the first instance and the fight will continue is just speculation without Oppo’s statement.

Judgment with a signal effect

However, according to the online magazine Foss Patents, the incident is already unique: “It is the most far-reaching product enforcement that has ever taken place in Germany,” explains Foss Patents expert Florian Müller. In addition, the pronunciation has a signal effect. Nokia’s lawsuits against Oppo are also pending in France, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden.