On December 18, 2025, the UK High Court ruled in a global patent dispute over video encoding technology, upholding claims by Acer, Asus, and Hisense. Before establishing “fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory” (FRAND) licensing terms, Nokia, as the patent holder, must agree to a provisional licensing arrangement.

Judge James Mellor further clarified that this interim license will require Acer, Asus, and Hisense to pay Nokia $0.365 per device sold. This amount exceeds the $0.03 previously proposed by Acer and Asus but falls below Nokia's initial demand of $0.69. Nokia stated it will appeal the ruling.

Nokia's global patent litigation against Acer, Asus, and Hisense began in April 2025 and has since spread to multiple countries.

In April 2025, Nokia first sued the three companies in Germany and the Unified Patent Court (UPC), alleging infringement of video coding patents in their computers and smart TVs. Subsequently, Nokia filed lawsuits against Hisense and others in multiple U.S. courts and petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission for a Section 337 investigation seeking import bans. In June, the litigation extended to India, where Nokia sued Hisense and Acer in the Delhi High Court, later adding Asus.

In retaliation, Acer and Hisense sued Nokia in the UK High Court in June, followed by Asus in July. Hisense also filed patent invalidation challenges against Nokia's relevant patents in China and the U.S. during 2025.

From October 21 to 24, 2025, the UK High Court held a pivotal hearing to adjudicate Nokia's jurisdictional objections and the three companies' requests for provisional licenses. Nokia stated in court that licenses could be granted immediately if the opposing parties agreed to binding arbitration.

On October 31 of the same year, Hisense filed a counterclaim against Nokia in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, alleging infringement of seven U.S. patents by four of Nokia's core products.

Additionally, British courts have permitted parties to seek short-term patent licensing agreements prior to trial in cases including Amazon vs. Nokia and Lenovo vs. Ericsson, though both disputes ultimately settled. Samsung also secured an interim license in its lawsuit against ZTE in June this year, but that ruling was overturned on appeal.

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