Supreme Court rejects plea by Oppo against Delhi High Court order for security payment in patent infringement case by Nokia

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the appeal by Chinese smartphone manufacturer Oppo challenging the Delhi High Court order directing the Chinese company to furnish a pro-tem security payment in favour of mobile manufacturer Nokia in a patent infringement dispute [Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corporation Limited and Others v. Nokia Technologies OY]..A three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra refused to interfere with the High Court order after noting that it had passed a reasoned decision. "There is no justification for this Court to interfere with the order of the division bench of the High Court. Though the division bench reversed the order of the single-judge, it is an interlocutory order," the Court said.The Court, however, granted a short extension to Oppo till August 25 to comply with the High Court's directions. Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, Gopal Shankarnarayan and advocates Saikrishna Rajagopal, Ruby Singh Ahuja, Siddharth Chopra, Deepti Sarin, Kritika Sachdeva, Julien George, Vasu Singh, Anu Paarcha, Arjun Gadhoke, Vivek Ayyagari, Avliit Kumar, Aniruddh Bhatia and N Parvati, appeared for Oppo.Senior Advocates Mukul Rohatgi, AM Singhvi, Gourab Banerji and advocates Pravin Anand, Vaishali Mittal and Siddhant Chamola, appeared for Nokia..On July 3, the Delhi High Court had passed an interim order in favour of Nokia in its patent infringement dispute against Oppo. The High Court had directed the latter to furnish security payment within four weeks.While the exact amount is confidential, the High Court had said that it will be 23% of the ‘last paid amount’ under the 2018 license agreement between the two companies. This is because India accounts for nearly 23% of Oppo’s worldwide sales.A division bench of Justices Manmohan and Saurabh Banerjee had passed the order on an appeal filed by Nokia and set aside the judgement of the single-judge who had ruled against Nokia with respect to the interim relief sought.“Keeping in view the status of Oppo as an ex-licensee, its admission that its phones use Nokia’s patents, its willingness to renew the 2018 Agreement and make interim payments as late as June 2021, the fact that it has approached a Court in China for determining a FRAND [Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory] rate as well as the consistent practice of this Court and the financial condition of Oppo, this Court is of the view that the impugned judgment is contrary to the facts as well as settled principles of law. Accordingly, the present appeal is allowed and the impugned order is set aside,” the High Court had said.It had, therefore, held that a prima facie case of infringement was made out against Oppo. It had also observed that the German bank guarantee is a ‘smoke screen’ as it will only come into fruition once a licence agreement has been signed..Read more about the dispute here..[Read Order]