Vivo suspends the sale of mobile phones in the German market

In April this year, the German District Court in Mannheim ruled in favor of Nokia in the patent case against vivo , which involved Nokia’s 4G standard essential patent (SEP). Temporarily suspend preparations for selling and promoting the products involved through the official channel of vivo Germany.

According to the latest news from the official website of vivo Germany on May 30, vivo has decided to temporarily stop selling products in the German market .

Vivo Germany official website announcement is as follows:

vivo fully respects intellectual property rights and is committed to continuous innovation through extensive research and development. In recent years, vivo has signed cross-licensing agreements with many leading companies. We have been in talks with Nokia for an updated mutual license, but so far no agreement has been reached. We firmly believe that Nokia has not fulfilled its obligation to license on “FRAND” (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.

We are disappointed by the first-instance judgment of the Mannheim Regional Court on April 6, 2023, and following Nokia’s enforcement of these judgments, we have suspended the sales and marketing of the relevant products in Germany .

We have appealed these decisions and will review other options. In the meantime, we are in close contact with Nokia to finalize licensing negotiations on FRAND terms.

Our long-term commitment to the German market remains unchanged . Users can rely on customer support as well as future software updates for their devices. There is no impact on our business outside of Germany.

Naijatechnews checked the official website of vivo Germany and found that all product introductions have been removed from the website, leaving only the homepage and support pages .

▲ The current official website of vivo Germany

▲ The official website of vivo Germany in April this year

It is worth mentioning that in July last year, the Mannheim District Court in Germany ruled that OPPO infringed Nokia’s patents and granted Nokia a cease and desist order against OPPO. OPPO and some OnePlus devices were banned from selling in Germany.

In this regard, the relevant person in charge of OPPO responded that the sales of some products in Germany will be suspended . He also said: “The company firmly opposes unreasonable and high-priced fees for patents, and firmly opposes the use of lawsuits to coerce licensees to negotiate and accept unreasonable high-priced license fees. Malicious behavior .” He also mentioned that OPPO respects intellectual property rights and advocates reasonable fees, advocating the settlement of intellectual property disputes between licensors and licensees through friendly negotiations, and mutual respect for patent value.