After being attacked and beaten by Nokia for patent infringement, OPPO must now face, along with its compatriot Xiaomi, the wrath of the Nippon Panasonic. The two Chinese firms are indeed accused of having violated patents relating to 4G technology.
Usual, not to say routine, lawsuits between tech giants on the basis of patent infringement or misappropriation of intellectual property punctuate the year at regular intervals. We thus learned a few days ago that OPPO and Xiaomi are now in a dispute with Panasonic for the illegitimate use of 4G technology owned by the Japanese electronics giant.
A case that has been going on for years
Note that this quarrel comes after a previous conflict between Nokia and OPPO, which notably encouraged the latter to leave the French market. Xiaomi, meanwhile, is also in a lawsuit with Huawei on similar patent infringement grounds.
As reported by South China Morning Post, Panasonic says it has failed to sign a license agreement with the two Chinese brands, despite negotiations between the three entities for several years. This situation therefore prompted the Japanese firm to launch legal action.
Litigation as a last resort
According to the Chinese media, the lawsuit filed by Panasonic relates in particular to the use by OPPO and Xiaomi of patents essential to cellular communication technologies. According to the Japanese giant, this legal action would also be a first in its history, at least in the field of cellular technologies.
In detail, OPPO would have notably infringed patents relating to the arrangement of the channels, but also to the methods of execution of the Huffman coding (a compression algorithm).
It now remains to be seen whether a court ruling against OPPO and Xiaomi could force the two brands to distance themselves from certain markets, such as the European market. Given the dynamics of OPPO in recent months, this hypothesis cannot be ruled out.
Sources: South China Morning Post, Android Police
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