Ericsson and Oppo sign global cross-licence agreement without meeting in court

The multi-year cross-licence agreement between Ericsson and Oppo covers standard essential patents for cellular technologies, including 5G.

According to a press release, Oppo will pay royalties to Ericsson and the two companies will also cooperate on 5G-related projects, such as device testing, customer engagements and marketing activities.

Christina Petersson, chief intellectual property officer at Ericsson, says, “This important royalty bearing licence agreement with Oppo allows Ericsson to further invest in fundamental communications technologies. We now look forward to growing Ericsson’s IPR revenues with additional 5G agreements and expansion into additional licensing areas, such as IoT and consumer electronics.”

According to JUVE Patent information, there was no pending litigation between the two companies anywhere in the world.

Other battles for Oppo

However, both Ericsson and Oppo are involved in SEP disputes with other opponents.

Handset maker Oppo is currently locked in a global SEP battle with Panasonic. The latter has filed 24 lawsuits in Europe against Oppo and Xiaomi concerning patents relevant for the WCDMA and LTE standards.

Panasonic not only filed suits at the UPC but also at the UK High Court and the regional courts in Mannheim and Munich. Further actions are also pending in China.

On 9 July, the UK High Court dismissed an application for an interim licence from Xiaomi. However, Oppo did not participate in the application. The UK court has scheduled the FRAND trial for October.

Oppo has also faced global SEP litigation from InterDigital. In January, Munich Regional Court found Oppo and other patent users had infringed an SEP owned by InterDigital. The SEP is relevant for 3G, 4G and 5G standards. The companies are fighting at courts in Germany, China, the US and UK as well as in other countries. Oppo is also up against litigation initiated by Philips in Europe.

Ericsson confronted with Lenovo’s UPC claims

Scandinavian electronics company Ericsson is facing major litigation from implementer Lenovo in Europe and elsewhere. In October 2023, Ericsson filed the first patent lawsuits with the Eastern District Court of North Carolina, followed by ITC complaints. In February, the dispute also reached the Unified Patent Court after Lenovo subsidiary Motorola filed two infringement suits against Ericsson with the Munich local division.

However, Lenovo is not requesting a Europe-wide injunction from the UPC. The company is presumably taking into account its action at the UK High Court in London. In response to the first US patent infringement and ITC cases, Lenovo filed a lawsuit at the UK High Court to establish a global cross-licence.

Not the first

There has been a spate of cross-licence deals in the mobile phone industry this year. In January, Oppo signed a cross-licence agreement with Nokia.

The companies had sued each other in Germany, France, the Netherlands, India, China and the UK, as well as five other countries since 2021. The dispute attracted particular attention, partly because it was one of the most extensive, if not the largest, mobile communication battles of the last three years with around 100 global lawsuits.

In the summer of 2022, Oppo also withdrew from the German market after the Munich Regional Court ordered a sales freeze. (Co-author: Mathieu Klos)