Nokia signs patent licensing deal with China’s OPPO

After signing deals with Huawei and Xiaomi, Nokia continues its tour of licensing patents to Chinese smartphone makers with OPPO – a member of the BBK Electronics group that is combined the world’s 2nd largest smartphone vendor, while OPPO’s market share in the  Q3 2018 report by Counterpoint Research was 9%, placing OPPO on No.5.

In a short press release, Nokia stated this:

Under the agreement, OPPO will make payments to Nokia for a multi-year license period.

“OPPO is one of the leaders in the smartphone industry and we are pleased to welcome them as a Nokia licensee,” said Maria Varsellona, Nokia Chief Legal Officer and President of Nokia Technologies. “This agreement further validates our global licensing program.”

The terms of the agreement remain confidential between the parties.

This deal will further improve Nokia Technologies’ financial results and positively affect the balance sheet of the whole group, because money from patents is mostly profit, but one has to count the R&D expense on the group level that is responsible for patenting technologies. Nokia invested a lot of money in R&D in the last two decades, and after selling the D&S business to Microsoft, they engage in a more aggressive licensing policy to maximally return their investment.

Source: Nokia