Agreement with Nokia: Acer and Asus Bring PCs and Notebooks Back to the German Market

After an agreement in the patent dispute with Nokia, Acer and Asus are allowed to sell their PCs and notebooks in Germany again. The agreement was facilitated by a private arbitration court.

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After reaching an agreement in the patent dispute with Nokia, Acer and Asus are allowed to sell their PCs and notebooks in Germany again. The agreement was facilitated by a private arbitration court. The companies did not disclose any details.

In mid-February 2026, the Munich I District Court imposed a sales ban on PCs and notebooks from Acer and Asus in Germany. The reason for this was a patent dispute between the Taiwanese manufacturers and Nokia. A similar situation had previously occurred with Oppo, OnePlus, and Amazon.

Acer and Asus: Licensing Fees to Nokia

The current dispute specifically concerns patent EP2661892, which describes the H.265/HEVC video standard. This standard is deeply integrated into most modern PCs and notebooks. Therefore, hardware manufacturers typically need to pay licensing fees to Nokia.

However, Asus and Acer were apparently initially unwilling to accept Nokia's demands. While the PC manufacturers wanted to measure the licensing fees based on individual CPUs and GPUs, Nokia considered the total device price to be crucial for the calculation, as reported by heise.de. Consequently, the expectations regarding the fee amounts diverged significantly.

Agreement Before Private Arbitration Court

Just over four months after the court-imposed sales ban, there is now an agreement, as reported first by Channelpartner. This was said to have been reached with the help of a private arbitration court. No details about the exact content of the agreement or the amount of future licensing costs were disclosed.

Only this much: "Asus and Nokia have entered into an arbitration agreement to resolve their patent disputes," Asus stated. "In this context, the ongoing legal proceedings between both companies, including those in Germany, are being suspended or withdrawn."

Acer expressed a similar sentiment: "Acer respects intellectual property rights and maintains a professional dialogue with its industry partners. In coordination with Nokia, Acer is resuming sales and marketing activities for all products in Germany."

PCs and Notebooks Available Online

PCs and notebooks can now be ordered again from the online shops on the German websites of both Taiwanese manufacturers. Delivery is expected to occur within a few days in some cases.