OPPO and Huawei enter into patent agreement

Chinese electronics makers OPPO and Huawei have entered into an agreement to use each other’s patents. The companies have announced this. It is unknown which patents the companies exchange.

Huawei speaks, among other things about patents in the field of 5G, WiFi and codecs for video and audio. As a maker of cell tower equipment, among other things, Huawei has been involved in creating techniques that have ended up in the 5G standard. It is unclear which patents OPPO contributes. OPPO also has network patents, in addition to patents in the field of smartphone cameras.

Such an agreement usually means that one company pays an amount to the other company and that the companies agree that they can use technology from each other’s patents. Smartphone makers like OPPO need those agreements, because they use many wireless technologies such as 3G, 4G, 5G, WiFi and Bluetooth.

The lack of patents in this area bothered OPPO earlier this year, when it decided to stop selling smartphones in Germany. Phones from OPPO and OnePlus, among others, are currently not for sale in Germany and there is no indication of when sales will start again. OPPO decided to stop sales after losing a lawsuit against Nokia, a maker of network equipment like Huawei. Huawei still officially makes smartphones, but due to sanctions from the US government, it has released few new models in Europe since 2019.

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