Bittersweet outcome for both Nokia and Amazon Prime in Düsseldorf

Today, relief and disappointment were closely intertwined for Nokia and Amazon at Düsseldorf Regional Court. The Finnish tech company and US streaming provider both won and lost in the pan-European battle over streaming-related technology.

Amazon and Nokia are fighting over multiple streaming technology patents. The dispute at the Regional Court Düsseldorf concerned EP 2 271 048 B1 and EP 2 130 150 B1.

EP 048 protects a method for provisioning a multimedia service to display additional information, for example about actors, in parallel to streaming a video. EP 150 covers systems, methods, devices and computer program products for arranging a user’s media files. This technology is used, for example, to recommend other content that may be of interest to users of a streaming service.

The 4c Chamber of the Regional Court Düsseldorf has now found EP 048 infringed (case ID: 4c O 49/23). The panel included Sabine Wimmers and Stephan Janich and presiding judge Sabine Klepsch. The judges ordered Amazon to cease and desist from using the infringing technology in their video software and devices. They also ordered Amazon to provide information concerning the use since 1 January 2023. Furthermore, the court ruled Amazon must compensate the plaintiff for the damages incurred and to be incurred as a result of the infringement.

In order to enforce the ruling, Nokia must provide a security of €646.75 million.

However, in the case of EP 150, the court dismissed the infringement claim (case ID 4c O 50/23).

Nokia filed several lawsuits against Amazon in autumn 2023 for the unauthorised use of Nokia’s video-related technologies in its services and devices. The lawsuits focus on the Amazon Prime Video service and Amazon’s streaming devices. In Europe, Nokia has filed lawsuits in Germany, the UK, and with the UPC. In a ruling of September 2024, the Munich Regional court found that Amazon infringed one of Nokia’s patents.

JUVE Patent does not yet know if the parties will appeal today’s judgment. Parallel to the infringement proceedings, nullity actions against the two patents are pending at the German Federal Patent Court. In addition, Nokia has filed lawsuits in the US and India.

Fighting on many fronts

In the parallel proceedings at the UPC, the parties are disputing EP 2 661 892, covering motion prediction in video coding (case ID: UPC_CoA_835/2024). Nokia filed its first lawsuit at the court with the Munich local division.

The Finnish company has also sued Amazon at the UK High Court over three patents. In Germany, Amazon is facing one lawsuit each at the Mannheim and Munich regional courts in addition to the two lawsuits at Düsseldorf Regional Court.

Nokia’s patents, some of which the patent holder considers SEPs, protect technologies for video compression, content delivery, content recommendation and aspects relating to hardware. They are relevant for video streaming, video coding and cloud computing.