Context: In the spring, Nokia started enforcing multimedia standard-essential patents (SEPs) against device makers Acer, ASUS and Hisense  in the Unified Patent Court (UPC) (April 1, 2025 ip fray article), Germany, the United States (April 11, 2025 ip fray article) and Brazil. Indian lawsuits were added later (June 13, 2025 ip fray article). The three companies brought UK FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing) complaints against Nokia ((June 12, 2025 LinkedIn post by ip fray).
What’s new: In the District of Delaware, Nokia is seeking declaratory judgment (DJ) of non-infringement and FRAND breach with respect to nine patents Acer declared essential to the 4G and/or 5G cellular standards. The complaint refers to mid-July “threat letters” by a law firm representing Acer to U.S. carriers (Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T) with respect to their use of Nokia base stations, threatening an aggressive pursuit of damages and other remedies. Furthermore, the Delaware filing reveals that Acer has brought some kind of defensive action in a Brazilian court.
Direct impact: The outcome will be a cross-license with Acer as the net licensee. Acer’s sales volume far exceeds Nokia’s, and portfolio sizes are asymmetrical. For example, the Patently 100 report released earlier this year (January 3, 2025 ip fray article) identified only 18 Acer-owned 5G SEP families and gave them a low score. Nokia’s DJ action makes it very likely that any infringement cases against Nokia customers would be transferred to that district and consolidated with Nokia’s case. The median time to trial for patent cases in Delaware is 2.5 years. In the meantime, various Nokia enforcement actions in different jurisdictions (such as the United States International Trade Commission (USITC or ITC), Germany and the UPC will come to judgment.
Wider ramifications: Even though it is unlikely that Acer can gain leverage from infringement countersuits against Nokia, Acer is demonstrating its determination to defend itself vigorously. Acer is a very interesting player in SEPs, given that it sometimes also elects to enforce (July 24, 2025 ip fray article). Both are Avanci licensors, and just like Nokia’s enforcement against Mercedes (then named Daimler) contributed to that automaker’s decision to take an Avanci license, Acer’s current lawsuits against truck maker PACCAR could result in incremental royalty income, via Avanci, for Nokia.
Here’s Nokia’s DJ complaint:
The following sentence in para. 21 indicates that Acer is so far not asserting any of its own patents against Nokia in court, but pursuing FRAND claims in the UK and Brazil:
Acer similarly filed its own litigation implicating Nokia’s patents in the United Kingdom and Brazil.
The previous paragraph alleges that “[u]nfortunately, throughout the parties’ negotiation, Acer failed to reciprocate Nokia’s good faith effort” (which according to the complaint started in 2018) and hasn’t paid any royalties during all those years.
Nokia raises numerous non-infringement arguments for the nine DJ patents in the form of reciting claim limitations and disputing that Nokia’s products practice them. It is highly unlikely that the Delaware case will go to trial before the parties settle, however.
A statement that Nokia has provided on its DJ complaint is simply consistent with what the court filing alleges:
“Nokia respects intellectual property and expects others to do the same. We are seeking a declaratory judgment that Nokia’s base station infrastructure equipment does not infringe nine Acer patents that it declared as potentially essential, as well as a declaration that Acer has breached its obligation to negotiate with Nokia in good faith.”
Maybe Acer thought that its threat of SEP enforcement against Nokia customers (which Acer is obviously entitled to, provided that it first complies with FRAND) would impact Nokia’s product business in ways that would make Nokia back down. But that does not appear to be the case. Wireless carriers receive demand letters all the time, and they regularly get sued, but their infrastructure suppliers then step in and defend them. Nokia has recently defended itself (and, where necessary, its customers) against three patent cases in a row in the Eastern District of Texas (July 12, 2025 ip fray article).
These are the nine DJ patents:
- U.S. Patent No. 11,252,641 (“Method of system information transmission and acquisition”)
- U.S. Patent No. 11,044,053 (“Device and method of handling code block group-based communication operation”)
- U.S. Patent No. 10,237,791 (“Method of updating network detection and selection information and traffic routing information”)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,999,097 (“Method of radio bearer establishment in dual connectivity”)
- U.S. Patent No. 8,737,333 (“Method of power reporting and communication device thereof”)
- U.S. Patent No. 9,807,746 (“Method of handling hybrid automatic repeat request feedback and related communication device”)
- U.S. Patent No. 8,798,663 (“Method of performing power headroom reporting and communication device thereof”)
- U.S. Patent No. 8,787,304 (“Method for reference signal pattern allocation and related communication device”)
- U.S. Patent No. 7,797,615 (“Utilizing variable-length inputs in an inter-sequence permutation turbo code system”)
Counsel
The complaint was filed by local Delaware counsel (Farnan LLP’s Brian E. Farnan and Michael J. Farnan) together with Nokia’s out-of-state counsel (Alston & Bird’s John D. Haynes, David S. Frist and Lindsay C. Church).