Munich court orders Acer and ASUS to stop selling PCs in Germany over H.265 patents
Even more reason to embrace open standards.
A court ruling in Munich has forced Acer and ASUS to pause direct sales of many laptops and desktop PCs in Germany, after a patent dispute with Nokia tied to H.265, also known as HEVC. The decision came from Munich I Regional Court on January 22, 2026, and it has already impacted the vendors’ German online storefronts and product pages.
The dispute centers on Nokia’s standard-essential patent claims related to video coding. Reporting around the case points to multiple HEVC-related patents asserted across Germany and the Unified Patent Court, including EP 2 375 749 and other HEVC portfolio patents referenced in parallel actions. The Munich ruling against Acer and ASUS is widely described as an injunction based on infringement findings and the court’s view on licensing conduct.
The Munich court found Acer and ASUS were not acting as willing licensees under its FRAND (meaning fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing) framework, which opened the door to injunctive relief. A key contrast is Hisense, which took a licence in early January 2026, reducing its exposure in the same broader Nokia campaign.
Acer respects the intellectual property of other companies and organizations. Following a ruling by the Munich I Regional Court (Case No. 7 O 4100/25 of January 22) between Nokia and Acer, we have had to temporarily suspend our sales activities in Germany for the affected products. At the same time, we are examining the possibility of pursuing further legal action to reach a fair solution as quickly as possible. While the proceedings are ongoing, we cannot comment on any further details. Numerous product categories, such as monitors, routers, e-scooters, and accessories, remain unaffected by the ruling and are available.
— Acer to PC Welt (Translation)
Nokia H.265 patents
Nokia owns a big pile of video tech patents. Broadly, that includes standard-essential patents tied to common video codecs like H.264, H.265 (HEVC), and H.266 (VVC), plus other patents around the wider video pipeline, things like how encoding and decoding is implemented in hardware and software, streaming and delivery optimizations (including CDN-related tech), adaptive bitrate playback, error resilience, video processing, and real-time video features used by apps and services.
Source: Nokia
You can still buy Acer and ASUS PCs in Germany, but not directly
This does not automatically remove every Acer or ASUS system from German shelves overnight. The injunctions are directed at the manufacturers, not retailers. Retailers can typically continue selling existing inventory, but regular replenishment from the OEM channel can get disrupted while enforcement and appeals play out.
If you want a specific Acer or ASUS model, you may still find remaining stock at large retailers such as Amazon, MediaMarkt, or Saturn, but selection may narrow if direct shipments stay paused. Existing owners are not being told to stop using their devices, and the dispute is about sales and distribution rather than a recall.
We seek fair compensation for the use of our technology […]
We hope that Acer, Asus and Hisense will soon agree to accept a license on fair terms, just like many of their competitors have done. Our door is always open for good-faith negotiations.
— Nokia
Next steps depend on appeals and licensing. Acer and ASUS have indicated they plan to challenge the decision, and a negotiated licence remains the most direct route to restoring normal sales.
Source: PC Welt, HardwareLuxx, Nokia