Via LA and Microsoft settle dispute over video coding technology
Without a ruling from the Düsseldorf Regional Court, Via Licensing Alliance and Microsoft have ended their dispute over a licence for the patent pool's HEVC programme. Previously, the parties had briefly clashed at the court with their regular advisors from Cohausz & Florack, Krieger Mes and Bardehle Pagenberg.
9 October 2025 by Mathieu Klos
Via LA and Microsoft have settled their patent dispute concerning high efficiency video coding technology. On the patent pool website, Microsoft is listed as a licensee of its corresponding HEVC programme. Google is now also listed there as a licence holder. Neither US tech company was a licence holder until recently.
In April 2025, three licensors of the HEVC pool, namely M&K Holdings, Gensquare, and Tagivan II, filed seven lawsuits against Microsoft at Düsseldorf Regional Court. The suits concerned seven different HEVC patents. Shortly afterwards, Microsoft filed a nullity action against all patents at the German Federal Patent Court.
Via LA accused Microsoft of deploying HEVC-compliant technology across a suite of its most commercially relevant products, including Xbox consoles, Windows 11, and Surface tablets, without obtaining a licence from the Via LA pool.
Before Düsseldorf Regional Court could hear the infringement claims, the pool and the tech giant have now agreed to end their dispute in Germany. JUVE Patent is not aware of any proceedings between the two companies in other countries. Via LA has almost always enforced its patents in Europe at Düsseldorf Regional Court.
Via teams up with core advisors
The Via LA patent pool has once more relied on the team around partner Axel Verhauwen from Krieger Mes, and patent attorney Gottfried Schüll from Cohausz & Florack. The advisors have worked together for the entire case. The team also included Cohausz & Florack patent attorneys Christoph Walke, Fabian Vogelbruch, and Henning Sternemann.
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- Axel Verhauwen
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- Gottfried Schüll
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- Christoph Walke
Düsseldorf-based patent firm Cohausz & Florack has worked for Via LA’s members for many years. It is responsible for assessing the patents organisations bring to the pool. Schüll and Verhauwen usually work together in German litigation, having both worked for MPEG LA before the pool merged with Via Licensing in May 2023.
Prior to the merger, MPEG LA waged major litigation campaigns with Cohausz & Florak and Krieger Mes at Düsseldorf Regional Court against Samsung and Huawei, TCL and ZTE, respectively. These resulted in licence agreements. In the years following the merger, however, litigation over video coding patents has been less intense.
Microsoft retains Bardehle
Microsoft once again retained Bardehle Pagenberg. The law firm organised the defence with three different teams depending on the plaintiff. Tilman Müller-Stoy, Christian Haupt and Jan Bösing had the lead.
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- Tilman Müller-Stoy
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- Christian Haupt
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- Jan Bösing
In the past, Microsoft has worked with Bardehle Pagenberg in other proceedings against NPEs concerning mobile devices and cloud technology. At the UPC, Microsoft relied on the Munich-based firm against Suinno Mobile & AI Technologies at the Paris local division.
In other cases such as the now settled dispute with Eyesmatch over gaze correction technology at the local division Düsseldorf Microsoft relied on a team from DLA Piper and Morgan Lewis & Bockius.
