Amazon Has 'Refused to Take a License' for Nokia Essential Video Coding Patents: Suit

lawsuit (docket 1:23-cv-01232) in U.S. District Court for Delaware in Wilmington. “Dozens” of companies have licensed Nokia’s essential patent claims “at rates that are reasonable and non-discriminatory [RAND],” but “despite multiple offers from Nokia, Amazon has refused to take a license to any of Nokia’s essential patent claims,” including the H.264 Advanced Video Coding Standard (H.264) and the H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding Standard (H.265), “some of the most widely used video decoding standards in the world," Nokia said. The Finland-based company contributed “numerous innovations” to the development of the H.264 and H.265 standards, which enable efficient and reliable video decoding in millions of devices, including smartphones, computers and tablets, it said. The video coding technologies enabled people to view broadcast programming and subscription video services, video conferencing and livestreaming on demand, it said. Nokia has a “large number of patent claims essential” to H.264 and H.265, and in accordance with ITU common patent policy, the company notified standard development participants that it “may obtain patents on its contributions” by submitting patent statement and licensing declarations to ITU in which it said it's prepared to grant licenses to the essential claims of the relevant patents on RAND terms and conditions. Nokia has been negotiating with Amazon to license various standard essential patent claims since 2009, originally focusing on cellular and Wi-Fi technologies and then shifting to Nokia’s patents relating to H.264 and H.265, the complaint said. In April 2015, Nokia informed Amazon it was infringing Nokia’s patents essential to H.264, but “Amazon would not agree to a license,” it said. In August 2020, Nokia sent Amazon a list of its video patents with a lump sum structure, including a past release and license; its offer was never accepted, said the complaint. In March 2021, Nokia presented a new offer, and discussions proceeded on an agreement covering only Amazon end-user products. After “many more negotiations,” Nokia counteroffered with a five-year license for video patents and cellular standard essential patents; the offer didn’t include a license for Prime Video, Amazon Web Services or other services. Though the parties appeared close to a deal, a license was never executed, Nokia said. Nokia made additional offers, including separate running royalty offers for Amazon’s video-related products and services, but “to this day, Amazon has not paid a single royalty for its infringement despite Nokia’s good faith efforts to negotiate,” it said. Nokia seeks a declaratory judgment that it has negotiated in good faith toward a license with Amazon and complied with its standards development obligations. Nokia also seeks legal costs and other equitable relief to which it is entitled. An Amazon spokesperson emailed Tuesday the company doesn't have "anything to share at this time."