Context:
- A couple of months ago, InterDigital won two video streaming patent injunctions in Munich against The Walt Disney Company. The second injunction (November 21, 2025 ip fray article) may be even more impactful than the first.
- Previously, InterDigital obtained anti-antisuit relief from the Unified Patent Court’s (UPC) Mannheim Local Division (LD) and presumably also the Landgericht München I (Munich I Regional Court) (May 30, 2025 ip fray article).
- The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a statement of interest in support of InterDigital’s defenses against Disney’s antitrust allegations (October 7, 2025 ip fray article).
What’s new: Various German tech media outlets report on Disney having switched off Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and 3D (with the Apple Vision Pro), thereby degrading the quality of its offering while no downward price adjustments or refunds are known at this stage. Online comments have recently (starting in December) suggested significant customer dissatisfaction, and the German tech press has figured out that patent enforcement is the only plausible explanation, given that these measures affect only Germany. For example, the UK version of Disney’s streaming service offering still comes with those features.
Direct impact: It is out of character for Disney to compromise its brand image only for the sake of patent hold-out. Disney’s brand is associated not only with unique content and characters, but also with high-quality streaming services. Normally one would assume that a settlement is imminent, but it could be that Disney’s executives listen to in-house counsel rather than customers.
Wider ramifications: The Munich I Regional Court continues to make swift and impactful decisions. Earlier today we reported on Nokia’s injunctions against Acer and ASUS.
There are plenty of German-language websites that report on the situation, and most of the articles are from these past few days. Heise online is Germany’s leading tech news website and already reported on Wednesday. That article mistakenly refers to the injunction as a preliminary injunction (PI), a mistake frequently made by German reporters, many of whom believe every injunction is a PI. But the article describes very well what Disney has technically done:
- High Dynamic Range (HDR) content, which offers greater contrast, is still available, but only in the basic HDR10 version, not Dolby Vision or HDR10+ (which is supported by high-end Samsung TVs).
- Apparently Disney’s German customer service representatives weren’t initially informed. When customers complained, they advised them to change certain settings. But that was not the solution.
- Disney still doesn’t appear to confirm to the press that this degradation of service quality is due to patent enforcement. But it is so obvious that it is almost childish to decline to confirm.
- Meanwhile, Disney has removed all references to Dolby Vision from its German tech support pages, and added a sentence that 3D content is presently not available on Disney+ in Germany.
- The earlier InterDigital injunction related to subtitles, and according to Heise online, those are still available. It could be that InterDigital decided to focus its enforcement on the stronger one.
- A leading German games website, GameStar, notes that this degradation of quality disadvantages Disney vis-Ă -vis Netflix, which has recently added HDR10+ support.
Maybe Disney is hoping to obtain an enforcement stay from the regional appeals court. We will try to find out more about that next week. But enforcement stays are hard to come by in German patent litigation.
Court and counsel
7th Civil Chamber of the Munich I Regional Court: Presiding Judge Dr. Oliver Schoen (“Schön” in German), Judge Dr. Florian Schweyer, and Judge Katalin Tözsér.
Counsel for InterDigital:
- Arnold Ruess (ip fray firm profile) attorneys-at-law Cordula Schumacher, Dr. Arno Risse (“Riße” in German), Dr. Till Voelger (“Völger” in German), Dr. Lisa Rieth, and Victoria Thuesing (“Thüsing” in German).
- df-mp (ip fray firm profile) patent attorneys Dr. Dominik Ho, Alexandre Hoffmann, and Laurenz Lindenbauer.
Counsel for Disney: Pentarc (ip fray firm profile) attorneys-at-law Dr. Dietrich Kamlah and Dr. Christian Lederer, and Zimmermann & Partner patent attorney Dr. Joel Naegerl (“Nägerl” in German).