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MUMBAI : The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a petition by Guangdong Oppo Mobile challenging a Delhi Court order that directed the Chinese smartphone maker to deposit 23% of the amount paid towards “royalty”under a 2018 licensing pact for alleged infringement of the Finnish company’s (Nokia) three standard essential patents in cellular technology.
While the top court allowed Oppo three weeks to comply with the high court order, it held that there was no justification to intervene at this stage. India comprises 23% of Oppo’s global sales.
Essentially, the company had secured a licence for use of Nokia’s Standard Essential Patents in July 2018 for three years through 30 June, 2021, after making necessary payments. This was a cross-licence agreement for patents belonging to both parties.
In its petition before the high court, Nokia said the 2018 pact didn’t include patents relating to 5G standards and considering 52% of Oppo’s sales in India and 64 % of its global sales comprise 5G devices, any new license fee would be substantially higher.
Nokia’s alleged that after the expiry of the 2018 pact, Oppo faced a surge in handset sales and between July 2021 and December 2022, it sold about 77 million devices in India without paying a single rupee in royalty to Nokia.
Nokia, further said, in its petition, that despite it making efforts, including making itself available for discussions on the technical and economic fronts, Oppo refused to execute a fresh/second licence agreement.
This led Nokia to file a lawsuit for infringement of its three Standard Essential Patents on the ground of unlicensed manufacture, sale etc. of the cellular device which comply with 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G telecommunication standards by Oppo.
Meanwhile, Oppo argued before the top court that the high court order had altered the level playing field and further caused significant hardship to it.
Adding that the bank guarantees have already been furnished in consonance with the counter offers for global sales given by Oppo during the course of negotiations. The bank guarantees have been accepted by Nokia and are still in their possession, according to Oppo.
A Standard Essential Patent (SEP) is a patent that claims an invention that is used to comply with a standard. These standards frequently refer to technologies which are protected under the Patent regime. A patent that protects a technology that defines standards to be followed by technologies of that field is called Standard Essential Patent.
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Updated: 04 Aug 2023, 11:22 PM IST
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