Amazon bankruptcy against Nokia: Some Fire TV Sticks may no longer be sold

The Munich I Regional Court has banned Amazon from selling some Fire TV Sticks. The US company is said to have infringed a standard essential patent belonging to the Finnish company Nokia. The ruling concerns devices that use HEVC technology for video decoding.

Nokia had sued Amazon for patent infringement. According to “Wirtschaftswoche”, Amazon must remove the affected devices from sale as soon as Nokia pays the security deposit. Nokia welcomes the ruling and stresses that it negotiated fairly. “The court ruled that Nokia acted fairly in its negotiations with Amazon,” said a company representative.

No more Fire TV Sticks: “Slap in the face for Amazon”

According to “Wirtschaftswoche”, the verdict was surprisingly quick and clear. Courts usually take up to six weeks to write a decision on complex patent issues. In this case, however, the court issued the verdict directly after the hearing. Patent law expert Florian Müller commented: “It is a slap in the face for Amazon.” The Munich Regional Court will make the decision within two weeks of a hearing. A parallel lawsuit at the Unified Patent Court (UPC) will not be decided until next year.

Nokia is now stepping up its licensing efforts in the video streaming sector. “Nokia has already enforced licenses in other areas. The mobile phone manufacturer plans to make streaming platforms pay as well.

An Amazon spokesperson has now sent CHIP the following statement:

“We believe the Munich Regional Court’s decision is wrong and are confident that the situation will be resolved soon.” The ruling will not affect existing customers and a wide range of Fire TV devices will continue to be available on Amazon.de. We are always willing to pay a fair price for patent licenses and have worked with a number of companies to license video patents of this type. Nokia demanded more than all of these companies combined and rejected our fair and industry-standard offer. We regret that Nokia is trying to limit choice for customers.