Nokia relies on new team in Europe for lawsuits against Amazon Prime

Nokia announced this week that it has filed lawsuits against Amazon for the unauthorised use of Nokia’s video-related technologies in their services and devices. The Nokia patents concern technologies over video compression, content delivery, content recommendation and aspects relating to hardware.

In particular, the Amazon Prime Video service and Amazon’s streaming devices are the focus of the lawsuits. In addition to courts in the US and India, Nokia has filed lawsuits in Germany, the UK, and with the UPC.

Nokia and Amazon face off

At the UPC, the Finnish company filed its first lawsuit at the court with the Munich local division. The Finnish company has also sued Amazon in the UK High Court on the basis of three patents. In Germany, Amazon is facing two lawsuits at the Düsseldorf Regional Court, and one lawsuit each at the Mannheim and Munich regional courts.

Bernhard Arnold

Which patents Nokia is asserting, as well as the lawsuit case IDs, is unknown.

Separately, Nokia has also filed cases in the US against HP for the unauthorised use of its patented multimedia technologies.

In a recent blog post, Nokia’s chief licensing officer, New Segments, Arvin Patel says, “Amazon and HP benefit significantly from Nokia’s multimedia inventions”. The lawsuits were apparently preceded by intensive licensing talks, which led to no conclusive result.

EIP’s first time for Nokia 

According to JUVE Patent information Nokia is relying for the first time on a London-based team from EIP. Bird & Bird regularly acts alongside the Finnish company, for example in the series of lawsuits against Oppo for 4G and 5G patents. Among other Bird & Bird offices, a London team led by Richard Vary and a German team led by Christian Harmsen are involved for Nokia.

EIP is no stranger to mobile phone disputes, recently appearing mainly alongside NPEs such as Unwired Planet and Optis. The series of claims brought by Unwired Planet against Huawei, and by Optis against Apple, are regarded as milestones in the history of the UK High Court. EIP partner Gary Moss led both series of actions.

Christoph Walke

No change in Germany

However, Nokia’s appointment of EIP in London does not mean a departure from the previous regular advisors. In the German proceedings and at the UPC’s Munich local division, Nokia relies on an Arnold Ruess team led by name partner Bernhard Arnold, as well as IP firm Cohausz & Florack. The latter firm deployed a patent attorney team led by Christoph Walke, who is also active for Nokia against Oppo.

In any case, Nokia employs a large number of patent firms in Europe. Bird & Bird has supported the Finnish company in numerous campaigns for many years and across several countries. In France, Nokia also relies on Allen & Overy. In London, Allen & Overy and Taylor Wessing have previously been active for the company.

According to Reuters, US law firms McKool Smith and Alston & Bird are responsible for the US proceedings against Amazon and HP on behalf of Nokia.

Amazon sorts out the defence

JUVE Patent is not yet aware which lawyers will defend Amazon in Europe. Nokia has served the lawsuits to the US company. Most recently, Hogan Lovells and DLA Piper have worked for Amazon in lawsuits in Germany.

According to JUVE Patent information, the German DLA Piper team is involved in a lawsuit filed by Nokia against Amazon for the sale of Oppo mobile devices, the sale of which is prohibited in Germany. DLA Piper is also advising the company in a lawsuit brought by NPE DivX. On the other hand, Hogan Lovells is defending Amazon in Germany in a lawsuit brought by Huawei concerning Wifi technology.

For Nokia
Arnold Ruess (Düsseldorf): Bernhard Arnold (lead), Arno Riße, Cordula Schumacher; associates: Jan Wergin, Tim Smentkowski, Chanisar Bangkomnet, Charlotte Meis, Benjamin Schnäbelin, Felix Beck, Anja Penners. Sophia Zeng
EIP (London): Robert Lundie Smith, Kathleen Fox Murphy, Gary Moss, Heather McCann, Jerome Spaargaren (both patent attorneys, all partners); associate: Catherine Howell
Cohausz & Florack (Düsseldorf): Christoph Walke (lead), Matthias Waters, Fabian Vogelbruch, Martin Rütten (all patent attorneys)
In-house: Clemens-August Heusch (Head of Global Litigation), Huw Edwards (Director Litigation)

For Amazon
No information given