EPO revokes DivX streaming patent after UPC Munich upholds it in parallel case against Netflix

For years, the parties have been locked in a battle over several patents related to streaming technology spanning German courts, the UPC, and the EPO. The recent revocation by the EPO Opposition Division marks a setback for US-based company DivX in its long-running European dispute with Netflix.

EP 4 213 033 covers a method for progressive playback of media sequences stored on remote servers, including the client-side management of byte-range requests and so-called trickplay functions such as fast-forwarding, rewinding and skipping within a video stream.

The patent is the latest in a series of DivX rights to fall at the EPO. In 2023, the Opposition Division revoked EP 34 67 666 for impermissible extension, a decision subsequently upheld by the Boards of Appeal. Last August, the Enlarged Board of Appeal rejected DivX’s petition for review in the EP 666 case.

Furthermore, the German Federal Court of Justice dismissed DivX’s appeal against the invalidation of EP 2 661 696 in September 2025.

DivX can appeal the revocation of EP 033 to the Technical Boards of Appeal.

UPC Munich upholds patent

The EPO decision stands in contrast to the ruling handed down on 15 September 2026 by the second panel of the UPC’s Munich local division. Presiding judge Daniel Voß, together with legally qualified judges Georg Werner and Tatyana Zhilova and technically qualified judge Torsten Duhme, dismissed Netflix’s counterclaim for revocation and upheld EP 033 as granted (case IDs: UPC_CFI_465/2025 and UPC_CFI_1121/2025).

The panel found that the patent’s teaching was neither anticipated nor rendered obvious by the cited prior art, including several US patent applications relating to streaming technology. The judges held that the person skilled in the art would have had no motivation to combine the cited references to arrive at the claimed invention.

On infringement, the UPC found that Netflix’s streaming software, including the integrated Cadmium player, indirectly infringes claim 1 of the patent. The judges held that the software is objectively suitable to carry out the patented method.

Cross-border injunction and damages

The Munich UPC panel issued an injunction covering 18 UPC member states, prohibiting Netflix from offering or supplying the software for use in those territories. The court also ordered the five Netflix entities named as defendants — including Netflix Inc., Netflix International B.V. and the national subsidiaries in Germany, Italy, and France — to provide information and render accounts, and declared Netflix liable for damages from 7 May 2025, the date on which the patent was granted.

The court set minimum recurring penalty payments of €5,000 per day for non-compliance with the injunction and €250 per day for breaches of the information and accounting obligations. The panel rejected Netflix’s request to make enforcement conditional on the provision of security by DivX, noting among other things that the patent expires in less than 18 months and that requiring security could effectively prevent DivX from enforcing its rights during the remaining term.

According to the register, Netflix lodged an appeal at the UPC Court of Appeal (case ID: UPC-COA-177/2026).

The dispute between the two companies spans several jurisdictions, with earlier proceedings in Germany, the Netherlands, the US, and Brazil. In 2022, Mannheim Regional Court initially granted DivX two injunctions against Netflix based on EP 666, but the Higher Regional Court Karlsruhe later stayed enforcement following the EPO revocation. In the Netherlands, the Amsterdam court declined to align its judgment with the Mannheim ruling in early 2023.

Wildanger and Eisenführ Speiser for DivX

At the EPO a joint team of German outfit Eisenführ Speiser and Vienna-based patent attorney firm Matschnig & Forsthuber represented patent owner DivX. Lead partner Jochen Ehlers and patent attorney Karin Rosahl of Eisenführ Speiser’s Hamburg office worked closely with patent attorney and name partner of the Austrian firm, Martin Forsthuber, who was also active in filing the patent.

Eisenführ Speiser’s team also acts in the parallel UPC proceedings for DivX. The patent attorneys advise on the technical side of the case, while a team from Wildanger around Düsseldorf-based partners Peter-Michael Weisse and Jasper Meyer zu Riemsloh lead the UPC proceedings.

Netflix retained Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, with Munich-based partners Marcus Grosch and Jan Axtmann leading the team, with support from Paul Lehmann and Felix Hartisch. Quinn Emanuel has represented Netflix throughout the European dispute, including in the earlier Mannheim infringement proceedings and the EPO opposition that resulted in the revocation of EP 666.