Amazon loses legal battle: Some Fire TV models threatened with sales ban

At the end of 2023, the Finnish telecommunications group Nokia sued the online retailer Amazon in various countries for alleged patent infringement. The point of dispute was multimedia patents such as the H.264 and H.265 compression methods, which are also used in video streaming. Now the Munich Regional Court, which had to deal with the lawsuits in this country, has ruled in Nokia’s favor.

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In its lawsuit, Nokia demanded a sales stop of devices from Amazon’s “Fire TV” series and damages of an unknown amount for the unlicensed use of the patented technology. The ruling does not automatically result in a sales stop for Fire TV players in Germany. Nokia would have to actively assert the injunction now awarded. In addition, not all models in the series would be affected, as they support different compression methods and some of them are not covered by the current patent dispute.

Amazon has already commented on the ruling. The official statement reads: “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 and reject our fair and industry-standard offer. that Nokia is trying to limit choice for customers.”

Effects

It is currently unclear whether Nokia will enforce the sales ban – also because Amazon is likely to appeal against the ruling and the Finns may have to compensate for potential revenue losses in the event of a defeat in the next instance. Accordingly, Nokia would also have to deposit a high security deposit to enforce the injunction. What is certain is that the ruling will have no impact on customers who already own an Amazon device and the Fire TV experience will not change.

There is currently another legal dispute in Great Britain concerning the conditions under which Nokia can grant licenses so that they are still considered fair. A verdict is expected next year.

(nij)