What you need to know
- Vivo's patent dispute with Nokia has gone awry and the company has shutdown all operations in Germany.
- The company's German website simply lists the Court's decision from April and its main page holds a goodbye message to consumers.
- Reports suggest Vivo may have to leave Poland, as well, though its sister company OPPO is preparing to launch a new phone in the region.
Various Chinese subsidiaries have grappled with a patent dispute with Vivo for several months now. A new development displays the unfortunate reality the OEM is now facing.
According to the German publication WinFuture, Vivo's patent dispute has unfortunately ended with the Chinese OEM pulling out of Germany, ceasing all product operations to consumers.
Consumers in the country interested in purchasing newer Vivo phones and other such devices can no longer do so as a result of this.
Due to Vivo shutting down its operations in Germany, the Chinese brand's website for the country has been completely stripped of anything relating to any former practices and announcements. Only two things remain: the press release from April which spoke about a decision brought down by the District Court of Mannheim, and a goodbye message on its main page.
According to the machine-translated farewell message, Vivo states its products will no longer be available in Germany, and no information regarding devices will be available on the website moving forward. However, those with a Vivo device can continue to use it as always, as the company's customer service will be on standby for any assistance, and their devices will continue to receive software updates.
The District Court of Mannheim brought down the order for Vivo to suspend all sales and marketing of products if a reasonable agreement between it and the Finnish brand Nokia was not met. The two companies had been in talks for a while, although Vivo felt as though Nokia did not offer a mutual license based on FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms. Thus, things have fallen by the wayside.
BBK Electronics subsidiaries have been grappling with a patent dispute with Nokia over 5G technology since the latter summer months of 2022. At that time, OPPO and OnePlus started going through trying times in Germany as they were forced to halt sales in the country.
More recently, reports have suggested Vivo be leaving another European country, Poland, as a result of this patent dispute with Nokia. Curiously though, OPPO has been making preparations to launch its new Reno 10 series in the same region, displaying no signs of a struggle with the ongoing legal battle — in Poland, anyway.
