The European Patent Office (EPO) made a decision to uphold the validity of OPPO’s patent EP3624524 after amendment. The patent covers “wireless communication method, network device and terminal device”, and is claimed to be a 5G standard essential patent (SEP). In February 2022, Nokia filed an opposition procedure against the patent at the EPO.

This decision to uphold the patent validity further strengthens OPPO’s patent threat to Nokia. OPPO has filed an infringement lawsuit against Nokia in Mannheim, claiming that its base station products infringe the patent. The trial is scheduled for December 5, 2023. As analyzed by the Fosspatent blog, the possibility of the patent being recognized as an SEP by the court after amendment in the EPO procedure is not ruled out, but this does not affect the infringement determination. After all, the infringement determination is based on whether Nokia’s base station products implement the patent or not, rather than whether they implement the relevant standards or not.

The patent dispute between OPPO and Nokia has spread to multiple international jurisdictions, involving complex patent validity and infringement issues, and has become one of the largest and longest legal disputes in the wireless communication field in recent years. The case is gradually developing in favor of OPPO. Just a series of progress of the case since 2023 can show the dilemma faced by Nokia. On January 11, 2023, The Hague District Court rejected Nokia’s motion for a preliminary injunction against OPPO. On July 20, 2023, the Paris Judicial Court issued a judgment on EP1702486, which was invalidated for lack of inventiveness; on July 4, 2023, EP1704731 was invalidated for lack of novelty; according to the French litigation procedure, Nokia had to pay each defendant 100,000 euros, totaling 400,000 euros in attorney fees. On September 14, 2023, a Swedish court declared two SEPs (EP2981103 and EP3220562) sued by Nokia against OPPO invalid.

This complex patent dispute has attracted widespread attention from the industry, and its outcome will also have a profound impact on the field of communication standard essential patents. Patent disputes usually take time and energy to resolve, and this case is no exception. We will wait and see how the case will unfold in the future.