Vivo smartphones are now being sold in Germany again after Nokia lawsuit
Nokia and Vivo agreed on a new license agreement a year ago. However, Vivo phones are only now available to buy in Germany again.
The Vivo X 200 is now being sold again in Germany.
(Image: Vivo)
Vivo is bringing some of its smartphones back to Germany: selected models from various price ranges are now available again on Amazon, the Chinese manufacturer has announced. In addition to the flagship X200, these include the X100 Pro as well as the Vivo V40 and the Y28.
Vivo had to leave the German market in the meantime due to patent lawsuits from Nokia. Nokia had filed several lawsuits in 2022 regarding alleged patent infringements by Vivo. In 2023, the Mannheim Regional Court ruled that Vivo was infringing patent EP2981103 with its cell phones. It describes a method for the "allocation of preamble sequences" when accessing mobile networks and is important for the 4G and 5G mobile communications standards. As a result, Vivo withdrew its devices from sale in Germany.
License agreement a year ago
However, both parties were already able to reach a license agreement in February 2024. The companies announced that this settled all legal disputes between Vivo and Nokia. Since then, Vivo has been free to offer its mobile devices in Germany again. It is not clear from the Vivo announcement why the Chinese manufacturer is only now making use of this option.
According to Counterpoint Research, Vivo is the world's fourth-largest smartphone manufacturer with a market share of 8% –, on a par with Oppo, which, like Vivo, is part of the major Chinese group BBK. Vivo has the majority of its customers in the Chinese domestic market.
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As the former market leader in the mobile communications market, Nokia was involved in the development of numerous standards and, according to its own information, holds 6,000 patent families that are essential for 5G.
In recent years, the Finnish company has increasingly insisted on these patents in court. For example, smartphone manufacturer Oppo and its OnePlus brand had to reach an agreement with Nokia after the company forced the phones off the German market. Nokia also recently achieved a legal victory against Amazon's Prime Video.
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