German Court: Cease-and-Desist Against Notebooks and PCs Sold by ASUS & Acer

According to the latest ruling from the Munich Regional Court, ASUS and Acer are banned from directly selling their PCs in Germany—Europe’s largest economy. The judgment, handed down on January 22, 2026, has already led both manufacturers to suspend or remove affected product listings from their German online stores while they assess legal options and the scope of the ruling. The court’s order targets the manufacturers’ own sales and distribution channels, rather than retailers selling existing stock, effectively leaving the German market to supply only through other OEMs and the remaining inventory from ASUS and Acer.

The core reasoning behind this decision is patent claims asserted by Nokia, including patents related to core HEVC/H.265 encoding and decoding techniques. As both ASUS and Acer use GPUs, processors, and many other digital decoding/encoding engines for video, the use has to be licensed, and the sales can only proceed with approval from Nokia. The judges concluded that the two OEMs had not demonstrated the conduct of willing licensees under FRAND rules, which allowed the court to grant injunctive relief instead of limiting the remedy to damages. We don’t have information on the length of the ban, which will likely require a followup with the court and two OEMs.

Nokia has invested over €150 billion in R&D since 2000 and has played a significant role in creating, developing, and maintaining video coding and decoding technologies. The company also participates in numerous video standards boards, ensuring compatibility across devices and technologies. However, issues arise when OEMs like ASUS and Acer do not comply with license agreements, complicating the situation and leading to legal actions. Although court jurisdiction is limited to a single country, this ruling significantly impacts the companies’ planned sales. While international laws and courts exist, this case serves as an example of the consequences of a single court ruling.