Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) recently filed a counterclaim against Nokia in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, alleging antitrust violations and breaches of FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) principles.

This marks the continuation of their legal battles in the UK, Brazil, and other jurisdictions. In Brazil, Nokia filed its lawsuit just 66 seconds ahead of Warner Bros., creating procedural hurdles for Warner Bros.' declaratory relief action. Meanwhile, in the UK, Warner Bros. successfully obtained an anti-suit injunction restricting Nokia from pursuing legal actions in other jurisdictions.

This counterclaim in Delaware represents Warner Bros.' forceful counterattack against Nokia's global patent lawsuit filed in November 2025. At that time, Nokia simultaneously sued in the US, Europe, Germany, and Brazil, alleging that Warner's streaming services—including HBO Max and Discovery+—infringed upon 13 of its video encoding patents.

In its counterclaim, Warner Bros. alleges Nokia implemented an “illegal monopoly scheme hatched over many years.” Specifically, Nokia is accused of making false FRAND licensing commitments to international standards bodies to ensure its patented technologies were incorporated into global video streaming standards. Once streaming companies like Warner were “locked in” to using these standards for industry compatibility, Nokia allegedly “breached its promises” by refusing to offer reasonable licensing terms. It then threatened to seek global injunctions to demand patent royalties “far exceeding reasonable levels,” actions that Warner claims amount to “extortion.”

A key point of contention in this case is whether the patents in question qualify as “standard-essential patents.” Nokia contends that its patents only pertain to the ‘encoding’ (compression) stage of video processing, while its FRAND commitments to the standards body only cover “decoding” (decompression) patents. Therefore, it argues it is free to set its own pricing. Warner Bros. counters that encoding and decoding are inseparable aspects of streaming technology, the standard itself encompasses the entire process, and Nokia previously confirmed the necessity of its encoding patents to the standards body. Consequently, all patents should be subject to FRAND obligations.

Based on these allegations, Warner Bros. contends that Nokia's actions violate U.S. antitrust laws and state statutes. It seeks a court order compelling Nokia to pay triple damages, issue an injunction prohibiting further FRAND violations, and declare the relevant patents invalid or non-infringing. Previously, Warner Bros. had moved to exclude three patents from the case, arguing that they claimed only abstract concepts of “organizing data” and lacked patentability.

In recent years, Nokia has pursued a series of global licensing initiatives for its video encoding patents. While reaching settlements with companies like Amazon and Samsung, it remains embroiled in litigation with Paramount and others. The outcome of this case could significantly impact global licensing norms between “technology patent holders” and “content service providers.”

Currently, attorneys and representatives for both parties have not publicly commented on this counterclaim.