Patent judgement stops Acer and Asus: no more PC sales in Germany

Martin Jud

16.2.2026

Translation: machine translated

Acer and Asus have to stop selling PCs and notebooks in Germany for the time being. The reason for this is a judgement by the Munich Regional Court, which attributes an infringement of Nokia patents on the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC/H.265) video standard to both manufacturers.

Two major suppliers are no longer allowed to sell their PCs and notebooks in Germany: The Munich judges prohibit Acer and Asus from selling large parts of their product range because the court considers several Nokia patents that are essential for the HEVC standard to have been infringed. Acer's German shop is currently completely offline, while many Asus product pages are no longer regularly accessible. Retailers are allowed to sell off existing stock, but will not receive any replenishment. This means that the product range is changing noticeably - and all because of a video codec that can be found in almost every modern system.

Why?

Why a video codec is blocking entire product lines

HEVC is deeply embedded in current platforms: integrated graphics units, media engines in SoCs and dedicated GPUs support the codec, as do operating systems, streaming services, video conferencing software and local players. A PC without such capabilities would be conceivable, but hardly marketable in practice. Accordingly, the judgement does not affect individual models, but large parts of the product range.

Hisense, also part of the original lawsuit, has already reached an agreement with Nokia and concluded a licence. Acer plans to appeal against the judgement. Asus has not yet confirmed an appeal.

Munich as a focal point for patent proceedings

For years, the Regional Court of Munich I has been regarded as the focal point for disputes concerning standard-essential patents (SEPs). The chamber is known for its strict interpretation of licence obligations and has decided cases against Amazon, Oppo and Daimler in the past. For Nokia, the current case is part of a broader strategy to consistently monetise its patent portfolio.

The conflict shows how dependent PC manufacturers are on technologies that are deeply integrated into chips and software. Dell and HP deactivated hardware support for HEVC in individual notebook models as early as 2025 - apparently to save on licence costs. However, this cannot be a solution given the prevalence of the codec.

Whether Acer and Asus will be able to resume sales soon depends on whether an appeals court suspends enforcement or whether the parties agree on licence payments.

Martin Jud

Senior Editor

martin.jud@digitecgalaxus.ch

I find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.

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