On March 20, 2026, a court in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, issued a new procedural ruling regarding the standard-essential patent (SEP) licensing dispute between Acer and Nokia: it dismissed Nokia’s jurisdictional objection and rejected Nokia’s request for the court to dismiss Acer’s complaint outright. The case will now proceed to the substantive hearing phase. (Case No.: 1052350-65.2025.8.26.0100)
This case centers on a portfolio of SEPs related to video codecs held by both parties. Acer argues that the royalty rates and terms proposed by Nokia deviate from comparable industry transactions and violate FRAND obligations, requesting the court to conduct a substantive review. Nokia, however, invokes the arbitration clause in the confidentiality agreement previously signed by both parties, asserting that the dispute should be excluded from court jurisdiction.
In this ruling, the São Paulo State Court did not uphold Nokia’s defense, finding that the relevant arbitration clause was insufficient to exclude judicial jurisdiction and that the case should proceed before the court.
Meanwhile, the court did not directly address the issues of infringement determination or injunctions, but instead prioritized reviewing the licensing terms themselves and decided to introduce an expert evaluation mechanism, adopting a “economic first, technical second” review approach.
Specifically, the court will first appoint experts in economics and licensing to conduct a market benchmarking analysis of the licensing offer made by Nokia to Acer, focusing on the differences between it and comparable licensing agreements in the market—including royalty rates, billing bases, and transaction structures—to determine whether it meets the requirements of “reasonableness” and “non-discrimination.” Until conclusions are reached at this stage, the court will not accept applications for interim relief, such as injunctions.
If the dispute remains unresolved after the first stage, the court will then decide, based on the circumstances, whether to proceed to a technical review to determine, among other things, whether the patents in question are truly standard-essential patents, thereby reducing the time and cost burdens associated with proceeding directly to a patent-by-patent comparison.
Case Background
The patent litigation between Nokia and Acer began in April 2025 and has since spread to multiple countries.
In early April 2025, Nokia filed lawsuits against Acer and Asus in Germany and the Unified Patent Court (UPC), alleging that their computers and smart TVs infringed video coding patents;
On April 11, 2025, the dispute expanded to the United States. Nokia filed lawsuits against Acer and other companies in multiple U.S. federal district courts and filed a 337 investigation petition with the U.S. International Trade Commission, seeking an import ban;
On June 13, 2025, the litigation extended to India, where Nokia filed a lawsuit against Hisense and Acer in the Delhi High Court, later adding Asus as a defendant;
In retaliation, Acer and Hisense filed lawsuits against Nokia in the High Court of England and Wales in June, followed by Asus in July;
On November 7, 2025, Acer filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Nokia in the Munich Regional Court, alleging that Nokia infringed on its standard-essential patent for 4G technology (EP 2 451 225);
On December 18, 2025, the High Court of Justice in the UK granted a provisional license to Acer, Asus, and Hisense, ordering them to pay Nokia $0.365 for each device sold. This amount was higher than the $0.03 originally proposed by Acer and Asus, but lower than the $0.69 initially demanded by Nokia. Nokia stated it would appeal the decision;
On January 22, 2026, the First Regional Court of Munich, Germany, ruled on Nokia’s standard-essential patent (SEP) infringement case: Acer and ASUS infringed upon a video coding technology patent held by Nokia (Patent No. EP 2774375) by implementing it in their devices without a license. The court issued a Germany-wide injunction against both companies, prohibiting them from continuing to sell the infringing products;
On March 20, 2026, the São Paulo State Court in Brazil issued a new procedural ruling regarding the standard essential patent (SEP) licensing dispute between Acer and Nokia: it dismissed Nokia’s objection to jurisdiction and rejected Nokia’s request for the court to dismiss Acer’s complaint outright; the case will now proceed to the substantive hearing phase.
