Nokia obtains anti-antisuit injunctions in fresh lawsuits against Chinese payment terminal maker SUNMI in UPC, Munich, Mannheim

Context: Nokia has licensing agreements with all major Western manufacturers of point-of-sale payment devices and signed its first agreement with a Chinese terminal maker, PAX Technology, last August. Previously, Nokia had only sued one (Western) payment terminal maker, Verifone, which they then settled in August. SUNMI (a Chinese POS vendor) filed an action in the Yunnan Kunming Intermediate Court seeking a global FRAND rate-setting for Nokia’s 2G, 3G, 4G cellular and 802.11 SEP portfolio in January 2025.

What’s new: Nokia has filed two cases in Germany and two cases in the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in response to that action. It also requested and has since been granted anti-antisuit injunctions (AASIs) by the Regional Court of Munich and the UPC Local Division in Munich. In a statement today, it emphasized that “the companies have been in discussions for years and [Nokia] are disappointed that this matter could not be resolved amicably”.

Direct impact: This marks the third AASI to be granted by the UPC – all three of which have been handed down in the Munich Local Division. The first publicly-known AASIs emerged in Huawei v. Netgear at the end of last year. Meanwhile, last month, it was revealed that Avago (Broadcom) had actually been granted the UPC’s first-ever AASI.

Wider ramifications: The case could also have a bearing on two sets of current interim license proceedings in the England & Wales Court of Appeal between Amazon and Nokia and Lenovo and Ericsson. Further, it is the second to emerge in the last 24 hours in which a patent owner has sued a Chinese implementer in a court in Germany (and more specifically, Munich). Yesterday, it became known that Avanci licensor Sol IP sued Chinese automaker BYD in the Regional Court of Munich over 4G SEPs.

China-based SUNMI was founded in 2013 as a joint venture between Xiaomi and Ant Group (formerly Ant Financial, Alibaba). Its global headquarters are in Singapore.

The patents asserted include:

EP3220562 and EP3799333: (“Allocation of preamble sequences”)
EP3557917: (“Method and apparatus for providing efficient discontinuous communication”)
EP2243229: (“Method and apparatus for conveying antenna configuration information via masking”)

Nokia said in a statement today:

“SUNMI’s point-of-sale payment devices use a mix of Nokia’s patented cellular technologies and Wi-Fi standards fundamental inventions. We have been in discussions with SUNMI for several years and are disappointed that this matter could not be resolved amicably. We hope that SUNMI – like their competitors – will agree to a license on fair and reasonable terms covering the use of our technologies in their devices.”