Amazon Prime Video customers in Germany won’t lose access to the service | Image credit: Amazon
When two tech giants clash over patents, the loser pays for using technology that belonged to the winner. Typically, regardless of who wins or loses, the end users are not affected in the slightest, at least not long term. Granted, sometimes products are no longer available on the market until the losing company complies with the court ruling, these situations tend to fix quite fast.One of the latest losers in a rather big patent war is Amazon. The US technology giant faces a ban in Germany after the court ruled Amazon violated a patent owned by Nokia.
The German court ruled that Amazon can no longer provide video streaming services in the country until it reaches an agreement with Nokia. For every case of violation, the US tech giant will be forced to pay a €250.000 ($260,000) fine.
On the bright side, Amazon said that video streaming services in Germany will not be affected, despite the company being found violating video streaming technology patent owned by Nokia. According to Amazon, “there is no risk at all for customers losing access to Prime Video.”
Unsurprisingly, Amazon said that its Prime Video service will comply with the German court ruling and is “currently considering next steps.” On the other side of the fence, Nokia is happy that the court ruled in its favor and that its patent covers streaming services like Amazon Prime Video “which now are subject to injunction in Germany.”
…the innovation ecosystem breaks down if patent holders are not fairly compensated for the use of their technologies, as it becomes much harder for innovators to fund the development of next generation technologies.
– Arvin Patel, Nokia CLO, February 2025
This is Nokia’s second patent-infringement win over Amazon
It’s important to note that this isn’t the first time that Amazon and Nokia face each other in court. Last year, Nokia won another patent case against Amazon, but that one was related to the US tech giant’s Fire TV streaming devices.
Amazon’s Fire TV devices were found infringing on another Nokia patent last year | Image credit: Amazon
Apparently, Amazon managed to ink patent agreements with an unknown number of companies specifically to license video patents. However, when it reached out to Nokia for a similar deal, the Finnish company demanded more than all the companies Amazon worked with to license video patents combined. After it rejected Amazon’s offer, Nokia went on to win a German court ruling stating that Fire TV streaming devices infringed its patent. Although Amazon didn’t agree with the ruling, the US company said it will solve the issue soon.
