On 25 June 2026, Susanna Martikainen, Nokia’s Chief Licensing Officer, revealed that the company had signed a patent licence agreement with Asus and agreed to determine certain terms of the agreement through binding arbitration.

This agreement was reached to resolve a series of patent infringement lawsuits relating to video coding technology that Nokia had brought against Acer, Asus and Hisense from April 2025 onwards. Previously, on 19 June, Nokia had signed a similar agreement with Acer, the terms of which were also to be determined by arbitration; Hisense, meanwhile, had reached a settlement earlier this year in January. The signing of this agreement between Nokia and Asus will result in all relevant patent litigation between the two parties before the Unified Patent Court (UPC), as well as in Germany, the United States, Brazil and India, being stayed or withdrawn.

However, Asus’s conduct in the United States remains a matter of significant concern. John A. Squires, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, noted whilst reviewing Nokia’s appeal against Asus’s Inter Partes Review (IPR) request that Asus may have breached the ‘Sotera stipulation’—the compliance requirement second only to the safe harbour provision when requesting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to initiate an IPR.

Background to the case

The global patent litigation between Nokia and ASUS began in April 2025:

In early April 2025, Nokia took the lead in filing lawsuits against ASUS and Acer in Germany and at the Unified Patent Court (UPC), alleging that their computers and smart TVs infringed video coding patents;

On 11 April 2025, Nokia filed lawsuits against Asus and other companies in several US federal district courts and filed a Section 337 complaint with the US International Trade Commission, seeking an import ban;

On 13 June 2025, the litigation extended to India, where Nokia filed a lawsuit against Hisense and Acer in the Delhi High Court, subsequently adding Asus as a defendant;

In retaliation, ASUS filed a lawsuit against Nokia in the High Court of Justice in the UK in July;

On 18 December 2025, the High Court of Justice granted ASUS, Acer and Hisense an interim licence, ordering the three companies to pay Nokia US$0.365 for each device sold; Nokia lodged an appeal against this ruling;

On 22 January 2026, the First Regional Court of Munich, Germany, found that Asus and Acer had infringed patents held by Nokia relating to video coding technology by implementing them in their devices without authorisation, and issued an injunction;

On 8 May 2026, the 10th Civil Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, dismissed ASUS’s application to set aside the interim injunction and upheld the interim injunction previously imposed on ASUS;

On 12 May 2026, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales ruled on Nokia’s appeal, upholding the High Court’s determination on jurisdiction and permanently dismissing the FRAND claims brought by Acer and ASUS;

On 25 June 2026, Nokia and ASUS entered into a patent licence agreement.