On March 26, 2026 (local time), the First Regional Court of Munich, Germany, issued a ruling in Nokia’s patent infringement lawsuit against Acer and Asus, granting an injunction against both companies regarding European Patent No. EP2375749, a standard-essential patent for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265). This marks the second injunction Nokia has secured against Acer and Asus following the first HEVC patent injunction granted by the same court on January 23 of this year.

The patent at issue in this case is titled “Highly Efficient Scalable Bitstream Adaptation System and Method.” The court consolidated the cases for joint hearing based on relevant legal determinations made previously.

Following the enforcement of the first injunction in January, Acer and Asus had already removed the relevant products from their German websites to avoid violating contempt of court provisions. Furthermore, they have so far refused to accept Nokia’s licensing terms; therefore, this new injunction is unlikely to have an immediate direct impact on the market, and there has been no increase in the parties’ willingness to settle. However, the dual injunctions will significantly increase the difficulty for both companies to resume sales of the relevant products in Germany. 
The patent in question expires in October 2026, more than six years before the expiration date of the patent covered by the first injunction.

As previously reported, Nokia had previously won a lawsuit against Amazon in Germany based on this patent, and HP also reached a settlement with Nokia prior to related litigation. Hisense, which was sued alongside Acer and Asus, settled with Nokia in January of this year. (Link to report: Global Litigation Ends! Nokia Signs First Patent License Agreement with Hisense)