Amazon’s “streaming stick” infringes Nokia’s patent, says a German court

American the technology giant Amazon has used the patented video technology of the Finnish network device manufacturer Nokia without permission, a German court has judged.

The lawsuit is at least about Amazon’s consumer streaming devices. They mean at least Amazon’s Fire TV Stick devices, through which you can watch streaming services, among other things. The devices in question correspond to Google’s Chromecast devices, which are perhaps more familiar in Finland.

News agency Bloomberg’s according to the decision means that Nokia could prevent Amazon from selling its devices in Germany. According to the news agency, Nokia has not yet blocked the sale of the products, but plans to make a decision on the matter soon.

“The Munich Regional Court in Germany has found that Amazon uses Nokia’s patented video-related technology in its consumer streaming devices and sells them illegally without a license. The court also stated that Nokia has acted fairly in its negotiations with Amazon. We hope that Amazon accepts its obligations and accepts the license on fair terms”, Nokia’s Licensing Director Arvin Patel says in a statement forwarded to HS.

Amazon said in his statements that he was dissatisfied with the court’s decision. According to Bloomberg, the company can still appeal the court’s decision.

A representative of the US giant told Reuters that the court decision does not affect the company’s current customers and that the company’s devices in question will continue to be available on the company’s platforms.

The company said that it is confident that the issue will be resolved soon.

“We are disappointed that Nokia has taken these actions,” a company representative said, according to Reuters.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon thinks that Nokia demands too high a price for licensing its technology.

“We are always ready to pay a fair price for patent licenses, and we have worked with numerous companies to license video patents like this. Nokia is demanding more than all those companies combined and has rejected our offer, which was fair and in line with market prices,” Amazon says in a statement sent to Bloomberg.

Nokia said last October that it had filed lawsuits against Amazon in the United States, Germany, India, Britain and the European Patent and Trademark Office for unauthorized use of its technology.

At the same time, the company said that it had filed a separate lawsuit against the device manufacturer HP.

It is known that the first settlement in the lawsuit brought against Amazon in the United States is still expected later this year. Decisions are not expected until next year in the United Patent Court of Europe and Britain.

dispute the patent in the center concerns, among other things, the technology used in video compression, which is needed in, among other things, streaming services.

In a blog post last fall about the lawsuits, Licensing Director Patel stated that companies that provide video streaming platforms or devices enjoy great benefits based on the research work of Nokia and other innovators.

“Without it, their products and services simply wouldn’t work as consumers expect today. Nokia is seeking compensation for the use of these important innovations,” Patel wrote.