Nokia targets Asian hardware makers in new UPC and Munich patent suits

Nokia is enforcing three patents against Taiwanese hardware manufacturers Acer and Asus, and Chinese electronics company Hisense. The Finnish company has filed three lawsuits against each manufacturer at both the Munich Regional Court and at the UPC local division Munich.

The three patents EP 2 375 749, EP 2774 375, and EP 2 661 892 all belong to the video codec standard H.265. Nokia has already filed suit against all three companies over the first two patents at the Regional Court Munich. In 2023 Nokia successfully enforced EP 749 against Amazon with so-called chair judgments, i.e. judgments directly following an oral hearing.

Nokia is now enforcing EP 892 against the three manufacturers at the local division Munich. Thus, in total Nokia has filed nine actions across both courts. In all claims Nokia is seeking damages and cease and desist from selling various products.

The courts have not yet served the actions on the defendants. Therefore, it is not yet known which chamber at the Regional Court Munich will hear the cases. At the UPC ist will be the second chamber under presiding judge Ulrike Voß and Daniel Voß.

According to JUVE Patent information, no further actions are pending at courts outside Europe.

Bird & Bird does it again

Nokia again relied on its regular German advisors at Bird & Bird. A team led by senior partner Christian Harmsen is handling the claims. The team also includes senior counsel Nick Pearson und counsel Tobias Wilcke.

A Nokia team consisting of Head of Global Litigation and Disputes Clemens Heusch, Lead Litigation Counsel EU Armin Schwitulla and Head of Litigation Risk Management Taliah Walklett are handling the new lawsuits internally.

Nokia has not retained any patent attorneys thus far.

Yesterday, Nokia and Amazon announced the end of their global dispute over Amazon’s streaming devices and service. Nokia’s second go-to firm in Germany, Arnold Ruess, had managed the lawsuits against Amazon at the UPC and the regional courts in Düsseldorf, Mannheim and Munich together with patent attorneys from Cohausz & Florack. In the UK, Nokia retained EIP for the first time.

Defendants mount defence

It is not yet known which law firms the three defendant companies have retained. In the past they have turned to Taliens, Finnegan Henderson and Eisenführ Speiser (Acer), Wildanger Kehrwald Graf v. Schwerin & Partner, Hoffmann Eitle (Asus) and Gulde & Partner (Hisense).

According to JUVE Patent information, these are the first actions before the UPC for Acer and Hisense. Ericsson, Dolby and Lenovo have filed several actions against Asus at various local divisions. Wildanger Kehrwald is representing Asus against Dolby and Lenovo, while Powell Gilbert represents the company against Ericsson.

The new series of lawsuits against Acer, Asus and Hisense coincides with Justin Hotard’s first day as the new CEO of Nokia Corporation. This follows another management change at Nokia Technologies in January. Patrik Hammarén is now president of the division that manages and monetises Nokia’s intellectual property portfolio, including licensing Nokia’s SEPs.