Delhi HC issues notice in Nokia's IP infringement suit against Amazon Prime video

Nokia takes Amazon to court over patent infringement

The Delhi High Court on November 6 issued notice to streaming giant Amazon Prime Video in a plea filed by Nokia alleging that the former infringed its patent.

The dispute pertains to Trending Now and Continue Watching features of Amazon Prime Video. Noting that the dispute in hand appears to be "extremely complex and would require detailed examination," the Delhi HC permitted the case to be registered as a suit. Furthermore, the court has directed Amazon to file its response to the plea.

The case is now expected to be heard by the court on interim injunction on February 6.

Earlier, Reuters reported that Nokia had sued both HP and Amazon at Delaware accusing the companies of infringing several Nokia patents related to video streaming. Nokia also said in a blog post on November 7 that it had filed related lawsuits against Amazon in Germany, India, the United Kingdom and at the European Unified Patent Court.

Nokia transitioned from making cell phones in the 2000s and 2010s to focus on other fields such as research and development and providing network equipment to other companies. Nokia said that some of the patents are essential to International Telecommunication Union standards for video coding technology and that it had offered Amazon and HP licenses to them on fair terms.

Nokia Vs OPPO patent dispute

Earlier this year, Nokia obtained a favourable order from the Delhi High Court in a patent infringement suit against OPPO.  A two-judge bench of the Delhi High Court ordered mobile phone manufacturer Oppo to deposit 23 percent of its India sales, within four weeks, for using Nokia's technology in its phones without the requisite consent.

The bench arrived at the 23 percent figure after noting that Oppo's sales in India account for around 23 per cent of its global sales.

Oppo had secured a licence from  Nokia in 2018 for using some of its technology for three years. Oppo had also made advance payments for the use of this technology. The agreement, however, did not cover the use of patents relating to 5G standards. Considering that 5G devices account for 52 percent of Oppo's sales in India, the company would have had to pay a substantially higher amount to Nokia.