Asus and Acer Resolve Patent Dispute with Nokia Over H.265 Hardware Acceleration

• June 22, 2026

Asus and Acer have settled a patent dispute with Nokia concerning technologies used for hardware acceleration of the H.265 video codec. This development comes after a court ruling that, starting from February 2026, prohibited both companies from selling or promoting products incorporating Nokia’s patented H.265 acceleration technology in Germany without proper licensing.

The legal conflict caused a significant interruption, with the affected products unable to be marketed or sold in the German market for over four months. The dispute centered on Nokia’s intellectual property rights related to efficient hardware methods to speed up H.265 decoding and encoding processes, which are critical for modern high-efficiency video compression.

Licensing Agreement Ends Sales Suspension

Following negotiations, Asus and Acer reached an agreement on licensing fees payable to Nokia, allowing the companies to resume sales of their impacted products in Germany. While the specific financial terms of this licensing deal have not been disclosed publicly, it represents a resolution allowing both manufacturers to overcome the sales restrictions imposed by the court.

The settlement highlights the importance of securing licenses for patented technologies in video compression and hardware acceleration, areas that are vital for consumer electronics manufacturers competing in markets with stringent intellectual property enforcement.

This case also underscores ongoing challenges faced by technology companies navigating patent landscapes related to codecs such as H.265, which remains widely used for high-definition video streaming and broadcasting. Asus and Acer’s agreement with Nokia may serve as a precedent for other companies dealing with similar licensing and patent issues globally.

As the resumption of product sales takes effect in Germany, the resolution will likely benefit consumers awaiting devices that support advanced H.265 hardware acceleration capabilities. It also reinforces Nokia’s role as a key patent holder within the video codec technology ecosystem.

Asus and Acer have reached a licensing agreement with Nokia, ending a sales ban on products using Nokia’s patented H.265 acceleration tech in Germany.