On 22–23 April 2026, Nokia reached a critical juncture in its appeal against Acer and Asus regarding the SEP dispute at the UK Court of Appeal. During the two-day hearing, the appeal judges repeatedly urged Acer and Asus to accept the arbitration proposal put forward by Nokia and questioned their reasons for refusing arbitration.

The case stems from a judgment delivered by Judge Mello of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales on 18 December 2025. The judge granted Acer and Asus a provisional licence declaration covering H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC video coding patents, and dismissed Nokia’s jurisdictional objection.

Regarding the terms of the interim licence, Judge Mello set a royalty rate of US$0.365 per device, a figure falling between the US$0.69 per device claimed by Nokia and the US$0.03 per device claimed by the implementers. The interim licence remains in force until 1 October 2026.

Nokia has appealed against the aforementioned judgment, putting forward the following three arguments:

1. The UK courts have no jurisdiction to set licensing terms for its global video codec patent portfolio;

2. Nokia has made RAND commitments to the International Telecommunication Union and has unilaterally proposed arbitration, which is sufficient to fulfil its obligations;

3. If the implementers refuse arbitration, this indicates a lack of good faith on their part, and they should not be granted the relief of a provisional licence.

On 22–23 April 2026, a panel of the Court of Appeal heard the case. Both parties faced sharp questioning, with Acer and Asus being repeatedly and thoroughly cross-examined on why they had rejected Nokia’s proposal to resolve the video patent licensing dispute through arbitration. The lawyers for Acer and Asus were compelled to acknowledge that only arbitration could resolve a global dispute without the risk of two or more potentially conflicting awards.

It is worth noting that Nokia has filed patent infringement lawsuits simultaneously in multiple jurisdictions worldwide. In Germany, the Munich Regional Court ruled on 22 January 2026 that Acer and Asus had infringed Nokia’s EP 2 375 749 patent, ordering them to cease infringement, and explicitly stated that the interim licence declaration issued by the High Court of Justice in the UK had no defensive effect in Germany. Nokia has also filed parallel proceedings in the United States, Brazil, India and the Unified Patent Court.

The panel did not deliver its judgment immediately following the hearing, and the date of the ruling has not yet been announced. IP Finance will continue to monitor further developments.

Appendix: Case summary table: