Nokia strikes Hisense license deal as TV maker prefers global patent peace over London dead end; Acer, ASUS lose important co-defendant

Context:

• Last spring, Nokia started to enforce video patents against three device makers with whom it had been unable to reach an agreement. Philippe Lanet, Head of the Consumer Electronics Patent Licensing Program at Nokia, stressed in a corporate blog post that the objective was only to get fair compensation for video-related innovation. Patent infringement complaints were filed in
  • the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and Germany (April 1, 2025 ip fray article),
  • the United States International Trade Commission (USITC or ITC) and federal district courts (April 11, 2025 ip fray article),
  • in the Delhi High Court (HC) (June 13, 2025 ip fray article), and
  • in Brazil.
• Acer, ASUS and Hisense filed FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing) actions against Nokia in the High Court of Justice for England & Wales (EWHC), where they obtained interim-license declarations that Nokia was going to appeal (December 18, 2025 ip fray article) and which were, at any rate, unlikely to be recognized in key enforcement venues such as the UPC and Germany (December 25, 2025 ip fray article).
• When Hisense settled with multiple other video patent owners by taking an HEVC Advance license, which became known within hours of a Brazilian preliminary injunction (PI), we wrote that they would probably also have to settle with Nokia soon (December 20, 2025 ip fray article).

What’s new: Nokia just announced that it “has signed a multi-year patent license agreement with Hisense covering the use of Nokia’s video technologies in the consumer electronics maker’s televisions.”

Direct impact: It’s the first-ever agreement between the two parties; Nokia receives royalties (of an undisclosed amount); and all litigation worldwide has been resolved.

Wider ramifications:

• This is good for Nokia, which is growing its video licensing program, and Hisense, which has now settled multiple cases within a few weeks of each other.
• It simplifies case management, such as in the ITC and the UK (where Hisense was represented by a different firm (Kirkland & Ellis)than Acer and ASUS (Morgan, Lewis & Bockius)), but for Acer and ASUS it’s not desirable to streamline those proceedings. Defendants are interested in delay. And Hisense actually had a better story than Acer and ASUS because of its focus on decoding claims (encoding claims are not covered by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) FRAND pledge).
• Nokia is also enforcing video patents against two streaming service providers, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount (December 1, 2025 ip fray article). Like in the Acer, ASUS and Hisense cases, Nokia offered binding arbitration. In the UK proceedings related to streaming, the Acer, ASUS and Hisense cases were referred to as the “AHA Cases” (Acer, Hisense, ASUS); now they can strike the H.
• Another major video patent settlement became known yesterday: Roku has taken a license to Access Advance’s HEVC Advance and Video Distribution Patent Pool (VDP) programs (January 7, 2026 ip fray article).