Munich court calls UK interim-license declarations “flawed in legitimacy”, deems UK courts incompetent to impose global licenses; finds pool rates far below FRAND

Context:

• Two weeks ago, the Landgericht München I (Munich I Regional Court) granted Nokia permanent injunctions against computer makers Acer and ASUS (January 23, 2026 ip fray article) over video patents. TV manufacturer Hisense had settled (January 8, 2025 ip fray article).
• The Munich court has the role of a thought leader in the development of standard-essential patent (SEP) case law (Wilus v. ASUS: January 30, 2026 ip fray article).

What’s new: We have now obtained a redacted copy of the Nokia v. ASUS judgment. It dismisses ASUS’s FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing) defense on various grounds. It also says explicitly that the English courts lack the competence to impose global license agreements on patent holders, referring to an interim-license declaration (December 18, 2025 ip fray article). The pursuit of a UK interim license nearly backfired, but the court gave ASUS the benefit of the doubt concerning its awareness of its own FRAND obligations. The decision shows the Munich court’s approach to cases in which a patentee owns only a small part of a stack (here, 1%). It also explains why the court believes the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, H.265) pool rates charged by Via Licensing Alliance and Access Advance are far below the actual value of the assets in question, a finding that strenghtens those companies and their licensors vis-à-vis unwilling licensees.