In-depth reporting and analytical commentary on intellectual property disputes and debates. No legal advice.

BREAKING: Microsoft takes Via LA HEVC patent pool license

Olivia Sophie Rafferty

Context: Between November 26, 2024 and March 6, 2025, three of Via Licensing Alliance’s (Via LA’s) High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) pool licensors, M&K, Gensquare LLC, and Tagivan II each sued Microsoft in the Landgericht Dusseldorf (DĂĽsseldorf Regional Court), enforcing seven standard-essential patents and seeking an injunction (April 7, 2025 ip fray article). The companies had alleged that Microsoft was using their standard-essential patents (SEPs) in some of its most popular products, including Windows 10, Windows 11, its Surface tablets, and its Xbox consoles. 

What’s new: Via LA announced today that Microsoft has joined Via LA’s HEVC (H.265) patent pool, bringing an end to its licensors’ disputes in Germany (October 8, 2025 LinkedIn post by Via LA).

Direct impact: This is huge progress for Via LA, and presumably a good outcome for Microsoft.

Wider ramifications: This settlement also affects the general HEVC patent pool licensing market, where there are currently two major pool players managing such SEP programs: Access Advance and Via LA. Microsoft is both a licensee and a licensor in Access Advance’s HEVC pool, and roughly a year ago, HP and TCL also took HEVC (H.265) patent pool licenses from Access Advance (October 30, 2024 ip fray article).

Today’s news comes after Via LA also gained a major win for its Qi pool last week, when the Unified Patent Court’s (UPC’s) Court of Appeal (CoA) largely upheld and in part strengthened the Munich Local Division’s (LD) first-ever SEP injunction against Belkin (in favor of Philips: October 5, 2025 ip fray article).

Counsel

Representing the plaintiffs was a team at Cohausz & Florack: Gottfried SchĂĽll, Dr. Christoph Walke (who is also frequently counsel for Nokia), Dr. Fabian Vogelbruch, and Dr. Henning Sternemann, as well as Axel Verhauwen of Krieger Mes. This team has represented Via LA (previously MPEG LA) licensors in several suits before and has achieved favorable settlements in numerous H.264 cases. It has been asserting H.265 SEPs since 2022.

On Microsoft’s side was a Bardehle Pagenberg team led by Dr. Tilman Mueller-Stoy and Dr. Christian Haupt.