InterDigital seeks €101.7 million in damages from Disney at Munich court

InterDigital has filed a claim for damages at the Munich Regional Court against Disney, seeking €101.7 million for the infringement of EP 2 132 923 (case ID: 7 O 8870/26). The patent covers high dynamic range (HDR) technology used to enhance picture quality in video streaming. In November 2025, the Munich court upheld the patent’s validity and found that Disney had infringed it. The court granted InterDigital an injunction against the streaming provider. Disney has since appealed the decision.

The damages claim covers Disney’s use of the technology from the launch of Disney+ in Germany in March 2020 until the Munich judgment in late 2025. According to InterDigital, the infringement extended beyond Germany, as Disney operated a server farm near Frankfurt to transmit bitstreams to Disney+ subscribers in 19 further European countries.

InterDigital argues that the HDR technology was a central component of Disney’s premium subscription in Europe, for which the company charged a €5 monthly surcharge over the standard package. Following the Munich injunction, Disney ceased providing Dolby Vision content to European subscribers rather than acquiring a licence.

A pattern of escalation

The damages claim is the latest step in a wider global campaign InterDigital launched against Disney in February 2025. Since then, the US technology company has obtained several injunctions in Brazil, Germany and at the Unified Patent Court, covering various aspects of video encoding and streaming technology used in Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu.

The Munich Regional Court has issued injunctions on patents covering subtitle overlay, HDR technology and HEVC encoding methods. At the UPC, the Mannheim local division ruled in June 2026 that Disney had infringed EP 2 465 265, which protects intra chroma coding (case ID: UPC_CFI_86/2025), while the Düsseldorf local division followed in July with an eleven-country injunction concerning EP 2 449 782, which covers intra prediction signaling (case ID: UPC_CFI_87/2025). In both UPC decisions, the panels dismissed Disney’s FRAND defence and classified the streaming provider as an unwilling licensee.

Most recently, in September 2026, the Düsseldorf local division found that Disney had infringed EP 2 080 349, a patent orignally filed by Sony, covering technology for transferring media content between devices (case ID: UPC_CFI_297/2025). As a result, Disney disabled support for Google Cast on Disney+ in Germany and the Netherlands, meaning users can no longer stream content from mobile devices to televisions via Chromecast.

Consumer impact and further proceedings

Following the earlier rulings, Disney progressively removed premium features from its European offering. The company withdrew Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and 3D content earlier in 2026 and later deactivated 4K UHD and HDR support on Disney+ in Germany. Premium subscribers in Germany were granted an early termination right at the beginning of August.

According to InterDigital, the claims the damages calculation is based on the role of the patent in supporting Disney+ premium content via Dolby Vision, the duration of the infringement of over five years, and the cross-border transmission from Frankfurt to 19 European countries.

Other proceedings between the parties are not affected by the damages claim, including a recently filed UPC action concerning Disney’s use of the VP9 encoding format, which InterDigital argues also falls within the scope of EP 265. Disney has not commented on the lawsuits.

Trusted Arnold Ruess team

As in the previous proceedings, InterDigital is relying on a team from Düsseldorf-based IP boutique Arnold Ruess. Counsel Lisa Rieth is taking the lead alongside partner Cordula Schumacher. Anas Beyen provides support.

A much broader team is handling the infringement claims brought by InterDigital against Disney before German national courts and the UPC. Arnold & Ruess is working with patent attorneys from Munich firm df-mp. Dual-qualified Dominik Ho and patent attorneys David Molnia provide technical advice in the infringement and validity cases. Both firms have represented InterDigital in previous disputes, including against Amazon.

In the previous cases at the Munich Regional Court and the UPC Disney retained Pentarc, with partners Dietrich Kamlah and Christian Lederer in the lead. The Munich-based IP boutique is now also handling the damages case.

In the infringment and validity cases Disney has previously worked with a team around Joel Nägerl from Zimmermann & Partner on the patent attorney side. (Co-author: Mathieu Klos)