5G patent battle! After Huawei, OPPO, and Nokia enter, what are the hot spots?
Huawei, OPPO, Nokia

On November 11, Finnish communications equipment manufacturer Nokia announced that the company has 4,000 5G core patents. This number proves Nokia's leading position in the development and standardization of cellular technology. It is reported that Nokia's industry-leading patent portfolio reaches 20,000 items. This is also based on Nokia's R&D investment of more than 130 billion euros and more than 30 years of promoting network standardization.
Recently, Huawei released its financial report for the third quarter of 2021. According to the financial report, Huawei achieved sales revenue of RMB 455.8 billion in the first three quarters, a year-on-year decrease of about 32%! Due to sanctions, chip acquisition has become difficult, and Huawei’s consumer business revenue has fallen sharply, but the operator’s business and enterprise business have developed steadily. However, we have seen that when Huawei's performance has declined, its profit margin has shown an upward trend. Huawei's net profit margin has increased from 8.0% in the first three quarters of 2020 to 10.2% in the first three quarters. Huawei announced in March this year that it would start charging 5G patent fees, and this part of the revenue has increased profits.
In early September, after OPPO counter sued Nokia for patent infringement in China and Europe, OPPO recently filed multiple patent infringement lawsuits against Nokia in the Court of Mannheim, Germany. The patents involved are all 5G standard essential patents.
The dispute over 5G patents has become increasingly fierce. What is the status of global 5G patent ownership? Where is Huawei in the 5G patent war? What is the entanglement between OPPO and Nokia's 5G patents? The author analyzes in detail for you.
The latest development of 5G patents: Huawei, Qualcomm and ZTE are among the top three patents, and Huawei and Nokia start to collect 5G patent license fees
In February of this year, IPlytics, a world-renowned patent data company, released a report on "Who is Leading the 5G Patent Race". The report shows that at present, there are many more companies with 5G standard essential patents (SEP) than last year. Overall, the data shows that the top 10 companies own more than 80% of all patent families granted by 5G, while the top 20 companies own more than 93% of all patent families granted by 5G.

Figure 1: Ranking of the top 14 global 5G patent companies in February 2021. From the IPlytics website
From the perspective of 5G patent filings, China’s Huawei leads with a share of more than 15.39%, followed by Qualcomm with 11.24%; ZTE with 9.81%; Samsung with 9.67%; Nokia with a share 9.01%.
According to international common practice, if smartphone manufacturers want to release their phones, they may need to use the SEPs of one or more companies. In return, these companies can demand royalties. This is a practice that has existed for a long time.
According to the analysis of intellectual property research institutions, Huawei has 3,007 declared 5G patent families, and is the company with the most 5G patents in the world. According to estimates by industry experts, about 18.3% of Huawei's 5G patent family are SEPs in use, more than any other company. Other companies Samsung, Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson and LG are also patent owners.
In March, Huawei announced that it would implement a 5G patent licensing fee plan starting this year. Ding Jianxin, head of Huawei’s Intellectual Property Department, stated that Huawei expects its intellectual property revenue from 2019 to 2021 to be between US$1.2 billion and US$1.3 billion, and announced Huawei’s charging standards for 5G multi-mode mobile phones: The patent license fee for Taiwan mobile phones is capped at US$2.5, and a reasonable percentage rate applicable to the selling price of mobile phones is provided.
As early as 2018, Nokia stated that the license fee for its 5G SEP product portfolio was capped at 3 Euros (3.58 US dollars) per device. Ericsson says that each device will charge between US$2.50 and US$5.
There are signs that Huawei has become more aggressive in intellectual property litigation. Last year, Huawei filed two lawsuits against Verizon, accusing the US operator of infringement of Huawei's patents. Licensing of 5G SEP will not only become a major issue for the mobile phone industry, but it will also become a major issue for any manufacturing industry that affects connectivity.
OPPO and Nokia's 5G patent litigation is still in progress!
With the commercialization of 5G technology, the basic patent licensing rate between patent owners and smartphone manufacturers has been rising. The volume of 5G mobile phones will increase dramatically in the world this year and next, and the huge benefits brought by patents will of course not be ignored by manufacturers.
In early July this year, Nokia simultaneously filed dozens of patent infringement lawsuits against OPPO in 9 countries around the world including India, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The cause of the dispute may be that the two parties failed to reach an agreement on the 5G patent license. According to the claim, Nokia's standard essential patents (SEP) and non-SEP, such as UI and security functions, are suspected of infringement.
Previously, Nokia and OPPO reached a multi-year license agreement in 2018. They kept all details of the agreement confidential, saying it was a multi-year agreement involving the payment of royalties. But the agreement ended in June 2021. According to reports, Nokia requires OPPO to pay Nokia 3 euros (approximately 270 rupees) for each mobile phone patent fee. Nokia has filed lawsuits against OPPO in 9 countries around the world, not only focusing on OPPO's strong shipments in the 5G mobile phone market, but also exploring the way for the 5G licensing business model.
We see that in addition to OPPO, Nokia will usher in the renewal of major mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung. Forcing OPPO to accept its own license terms is a normal way for Nokia to remove obstacles in future negotiations.
OPPO immediately initiated multiple patent infringement lawsuits against Nokia in China and Europe in early September, using 5G base station patents to counter Nokia. OPPO filed the lawsuit at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court in China, and the Munich and Hamburg courts in Germany.
OPPO counterclaimed the four patents EP3624524, EP3547772, EP3563600, and EP3557938 used by Nokia, which are all OPPO original applications, not the proceeds of the acquisition. The 4 patents are all related to 5G base stations. Considering that OPPO does not have base station business, this is obviously prepared for Nokia and Ericsson who have only base station business rights.
Although the four patents are all very "young", Nokia is also more likely to file an opposition application within the time limit for European patent opposition. However, according to the procedure, the European Patent Office will not even open the case during the opposition period. Foss Patents mentioned: "OPPO's infringement case will almost certainly be decided before the EPO's opposition review department makes any preliminary validity assessment."
In the past six months, OPPO has reached a winning settlement with Sisvel and Sharp. Before the settlement, neither the international NPE Sisvel nor the established mobile phone manufacturer Sharp could win any victory in the active war. OPPO's patent litigation strength is evident from this. Especially in the settlement with Sharp, OPPO successfully reached a cross-licensing agreement with it, and the quality of OPPO's patents has also been verified to a certain extent.
OPPO's daring to counterclaim Nokia lies in its own patent accumulation. IncoPat's 2020 China patent authorization ranking data shows that OPPO's patent authorization volume ranks second in China; another international analysis agency pointed out the OPPO patent authorization volume in 2020 Ranked among the top five in the world, its own patent strength has become its confidence to counter suing Nokia.
Public information shows that OPPO has reached a patent license agreement with many patentees such as Qualcomm, Dolby, Ericsson, NTT DOCOMO. Nokia was also one of OPPO's partners in the field of patents. The two parties just expired and there is no sign that OPPO has refused to negotiate. OPPO's good patent licensing record and Nokia's lightning litigation, there is still room for further gaming between the two. Between the two, electronic enthusiasts will continue to follow up and report on the next step of the 5G patent litigation.