A court decision in Germany has temporarily blocked Acer and ASUS from selling certain PCs directly in the country, following a patent dispute with Nokia.
The ruling comes from the Munich I Regional Court, which sided with Nokia in a case involving standard-essential patents (SEPs) tied to the H.265/HEVC video codec. HEVC is widely used for compressing high-resolution video, including 4K and 8K playback, and is built into modern processors and graphics systems.
According to the court, Acer and ASUS were found to have infringed Nokia’s patents without securing licenses on FRAND (fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory) terms. As a result, the court granted Nokia an injunction. That means the two PC makers cannot import, sell, or distribute affected devices directly in Germany, at least for now.
What’s affected?
Because HEVC support is deeply integrated into current hardware and software stacks, the decision potentially covers most recent laptop and desktop models from both companies. Acer has already removed PCs from its German online store, leaving only accessories such as monitors available. ASUS has similarly restricted parts of its German website, with some product pages offline or marked as unavailable.
Both companies have said the move is tied to the temporary injunction. They’ve also stressed that warranties, repairs, and customer service in Germany are continuing as normal.
The injunction applies to the manufacturers themselves, not to third-party retailers. That means stores like Amazon, MediaMarkt, and other electronics chains can continue selling devices already in inventory.
However, once current stock runs out, replenishing it could become difficult unless the dispute is resolved or a licensing agreement is reached.
Nokia filed patent lawsuits in 2025 against Acer, ASUS, and Hisense over HEVC-related intellectual property. Hisense later reached a licensing agreement with Nokia, leading to the claims against it being withdrawn.
Acer and ASUS have not settled so far and are expected to pursue appeals. Licensing negotiations may still be ongoing behind the scenes.
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