Context: Since the completion of Nokia’s smartphone renewals and its deal with Transsion (January 30, 2025 ip fray article) last year, the patentee has been expanding its patent licensing focus beyond solely mobile phone makers, including consumer electronics – such as its deal with Samsung covering video technologies (January 15, 2025 ip fray article) – and automotive (December 17, 2024 ip fray article). In China, Nokia has signed amicable bilateral deals with two (unnamed) Chinese automakers to date. It also offers its patents to automakers via Avanci, and more than 100 auto brands are already covered under Nokia’s 4G and/or 5G patents through the Avanci Vehicle programs. Last month, Nokia’s Chief Licensing Officer for Wireless Technologies, Susanna Martikainen, predicted that this year would be a “turning point” for automotive licensing in China (June 9, 2025 ip fray article):
“Either more Chinese automotive companies will sign licences or there will be more litigation by patent holders. I am pleased to say that Chinese automotive companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of respecting IPRs, and I would like to thank again our existing licensees for their professionalism in our license discussions.”
What’s new: Nokia has sued Chinese automaker Geely in the Unified Patent Court’s Mannheim Local Division (LD) and Munich LD, as well as the Munich I Regional Court, over the unauthorized use of four patents related to its cellular technologies in vehicles.
Direct impact and wider ramifications: Geely is a major patentee in the electric vehicle landscape (it was one of the world’s top 30 EV patent owners in 2022 and, between 2019 and 2024, had 469 patents published by the European Patent Office). The company has also actively enforced its IP: in June 2024, it successfully won record damages of $95 million in a trade secret spat against local rival Weltmeister in the Chinese Supreme People’s Court. However, the carmaker is not known for its presence as a patentee in the wireless communications sphere. It is one of China’s fastest-growing automakers (and also owns brands such as Volvo Cars, Polestar, and Lotus) with the company reporting that it had a 53% surge in its units exported compared to 2023 (January 5, 2025 Geely press release), which means this action by Nokia could be one of several it is facing/will face soon.
The patents-in-suit include:
- EP3799333 (“Allocation of preamble sequences”): This is being enforced in the Mannheim LD and is from the same patent family as EP2981103 and EP3220562, which have been very successful in multiple courts in Nokia’s disputes against OPPO (January 24, 2024 ip fray article) and vivo (February 5, 2024 ip fray article).
- EP4090075 (“Method, computer program and apparatus for selecting a beam for handover”): This is being enforced in the Munich LD.
- EP3832976 (“Radio bearer switching in radio access”): This is being enforced in the Munich I Regional Court.
- EP3566488 (“Method, computer program and apparatus for selecting a beam for handover”): This is also being enforced in the Munich I Regional Court and belongs to the same patent family as EP4090075.
The first patent is essential to 4G and 5G, while the latter three are 5G patents.
In a statement today, Nokia said:
“Geely has repeatedly rejected our fair and reasonable patent license agreement offers, giving Geely an unfair competitive advantage over their licensed rivals, which left us with no choice other than to pursue legal action. We remain open to good-faith negotiations.”
The only other publicly-known Chinese automaker currently facing litigation over cellular SEPs is BYD, against which Avanci licensors Sol IP and IP Bridge have enforced 4G SEPs in Germany, the UPC, and Brazil (July 12, 2025 ip fray article).