Nokia lands first blow against Amazon at Munich Regional Court

Amazon may no longer sell Fire Sticks that use HEVC technology in Germany. In handing down its ruling yesterday, Munich Regional Court granted Nokia an important win in the first of six proceedings.

Amazon is not permitted to sell its streaming devices in Germany. This includes 13 Fire Sticks from Amazon of different generations. Munich Regional Court under presiding judge Oliver Schön ruled yesterday that Amazon infringed Nokia’s EP 2 375 749. The patent protects a system and method for efficient scalable stream adaptation.

In addition, the judges did not accept the US company’s FRAND defence. Amazon must pay damages and provide Nokia with information regarding its revenue from the products in question.

Speedy ruling

The 7th Civil Chamber of the Regional Court issued its ruling against Amazon unusually quickly for an SEP case. So-called chair judgments, i.e. judgments directly following an oral hearing, are rare in German patent proceedings.

Amazon can still appeal and this is likely, given the severity of the decision. However, Nokia needs to first enforce the judgment for it to take effect.

Arvin Patel, Nokia’s Chief Licensing Officer New Segments commented, “The Munich Regional Court in Germany has ruled that Amazon is using Nokia’s patented video-related technologies in its end user streaming devices and is selling them illegally without a licence. The Court also found that Nokia has acted fairly in its negotiations with Amazon. We hope that Amazon accepts its obligations and agrees a licence on fair terms.”

Nokia and Amazon face off

The current ruling is part of a larger series of claims against Amazon. In November 2023, Nokia filed lawsuits against Amazon for the unauthorised use of Nokia’s video-related technologies in its services and devices. The Nokia patents concern technologies for video compression, content delivery, content recommendation and aspects relating to hardware.

In particular, the Amazon Prime Video service and Amazon’s streaming devices are the focus of the lawsuits. In addition to courts in the US and India, Nokia has filed lawsuits in Germany, the UK, and with the UPC.

At the latter, the Finnish company filed its first lawsuit at the court with the Munich local division (case ID: ACT_584119/2023). Nokia has also sued Amazon at the UK High Court on the basis of three patents. In Germany, Amazon is facing one lawsuit at Mannheim Regional Court, and two lawsuits each at the regional courts in Düsseldorf and Munich.

Amazon responded with revocation actions at the German Federal Patent Court regarding EP 740. The court has neither set a date for the oral hearing, nor it has published a preliminary opinion on the patent’s validity. The next hearings at German courts will take place in November, December and February, with a UPC ruling expected in 2025.

Separately, Nokia has also filed suits against HP for the unauthorised use of its patented multimedia technologies. This also includes a lawsuit at the UPC. In November 2024, the Regional Court Munich will hear a lawsuit filed by Nokia against HP over EP 749.