OnePlus returning to Germany following Nokia patent dispute

Summary

• OnePlus is back in the German market after a year-and-a-half-long hiatus due to a patent dispute with Nokia.
• German customers can now purchase OnePlus Open, 12, and 12R models through the OnePlus website.
• OnePlus and Oppo have signed a 5G patent license sharing agreement with Nokia, resolving the litigation between the companies.

Heads up, German shoppers: The OnePlus store is officially (re)open for business. News of the Chinese cell phone manufacturer returning to the German market broke this morning, after it took a roughly year-and-a-half-long hiatus from advertising and selling its products in Germany amid a patent dispute with competing mobile manufacturer Nokia.

According to a January 29 tweet from Allround-PC editor Max Jambor, OnePlus products can once again be purchased by German customers — effective immediately. The X post, which was retweeted by OnePlus CEO Pete Lau, specifically mentions the OnePlus Open, 12, and 12R models, but other OnePlus phones are also available for purchase through Deutschland’s OnePlus site.

This update comes less than a year after rumors swirled that OnePlus, as well as its sister company, Oppo, were gearing up to withdraw from the European market entirely. The manufacturers struggled to stake much claim in the smartphone game for these shoppers in recent years, but both companies refuted the spring 2023 rumors, with OnePlus telling Android Police’s sister site XDA that it will “continue to invest in Europe and provide more innovative product and solutions for its users.” Oppo spokespeople shared similar remarks, noting several successful European launches in the early part of 2023 alone.

Nokia and OnePlus’ patent feud concerns 4G connectivity technology and spans multiple years. In July 2022, the Chinese and Finnish manufacturers failed to reach an agreement on the matter; as a result, German authorities imposed a country-wide ban on the sale of OnePlus devices, as well as smartphones from Oppo. That ban went into effect in early August 2022, leading to a 17-month prohibition on the smartphones for German users.

It seems that OnePlus and Oppo’s verbal commitment to global growth is not a bluff. Oppo announced in a January 24 press release that it recently signed a 5G patent license sharing agreement with none other than Nokia, an agreement that “will resolve all pending litigation in all jurisdictions” – or, in other words, is a sign that the fire has ceased.

In the press release, Nokia Technologies President Jenni Lukander said that Nokia is happy to have reached a patent cross-license agreement that “reflects the mutual respect for each other’s intellectual property and Nokia’s investments in R&D and contributions to open standards.”

The new OnePlus 12, which is one of the models mentioned in Jambor’s tweet, is the manufacturer’s latest flagship phone — and it’s every bit as feature-loaded as we hoped the flagship would be. The phone’s cooling systems are by and large unrivaled by those of any competing phone, featuring a unique dual-chamber vapor cooling component that is expected to help with heat dissipation in the long term. In our firsthand review of the OnePlus 12, we noted a few exciting features — like Aqua Touch, which helps the user operate the touch screen even when their hand or the display is wet — and found that the manufacturer has really stepped up its camera game, overall leading it to be an unmissable contender in high-tier Android flagships.