A court in Munich has ordered both Acer and ASUS to stop selling PCs and laptops in Germany due to a patent linked to Nokia.
The court ruling issued in the German city confirmed that both brands must stop selling many of their models after a patent dispute with Nokia over H.265, also known as HEVC.
The H.265 Patent Forces Acer and ASUS to Halt PC Sales in Germany
Specifically, the dispute focuses on Nokia’s claims related to video encoding. There are reportedly many patents related to HEVC that have been asserted in Germany and before the Patent Court, including EP 2 375 749, among others.
Nokia owns a large number of patents related to video technology. Among them are patents covering some of the most common video codecs on the market, such as H.264, H.265 (HEVC), and H.266 (VVC). The company also holds many patents related to the implementation of encoding or decoding in hardware or software. On top of that, it owns patents linked to streaming optimization, adaptive bitrate playback, and much more.
According to the ruling, both Acer and ASUS infringed these patents, highlighting that they were not acting as willing licensees under the FRAND framework. As a result, the court was able to apply precautionary measures, which are the reason they can no longer sell desktop computers or laptops in Germany.
Therefore, neither Acer nor ASUS will be able to continue selling their computers until the issue is resolved. However, retailers that already have devices from both companies in stock will still be able to sell them without any problem. The measure directly affects only the two companies, which are no longer allowed to sell or ship units from this moment. Any remaining stock in stores can continue to be sold as usual.
