It may seem surprising, but Nokia is engaged in a legal battle against Amazon and HP. The reason ? The firm accuses the two giants of patent infringement related to H.264 video compression codecs. A central technology used in streaming.
The world of cell phones would have been very different without Nokia, which has had a strong impact on this particular industry. Unfortunately, the Finnish firm has never been able to negotiate the shift towards modern smartphones and it no longer has the same importance as before. The company, however, released a smartphone this year, the symbolic heir of the 3310, the Nokia XR21. If she is in the news today, it is not for her phones, but because she is taking legal action in Delaware (USA) against Amazon and HP. The company believes that the H.264 codec, used by most streaming services to compress videos, would come from their past patents. In reality, it is not the result of Nokia’s exclusive work, but the result of collaborative work by several groups.
The dispute with Amazon
We can say that the e-commerce giant has a thick skin, and is used to repeated trials. As we speak, Amazon is facing American antitrust for abuse of dominant position. Will society therefore feel threatened by Nokia, which accuses it of appropriating H.264 technology without right? Nothing less sure. That’s not all, since its successor, H.265, is also affected.
What does Amazon have to do with these codecs? It should be kept in mind that these are very effective in reducing the size of video files while ensuring high image quality. It is therefore impossible to do without it these days to ensure the distribution of high definition videos on the Web. Amazon services like Prime Video, Twitch or Freeve necessarily use them. Nokia tried to negotiate licensing agreements with the firm, but it failed. In response, the company therefore produced a 600-page document to highlight alleged patent violations by Amazon.
The case of HP and the use of codecs in its computers
On the other hand, Nokia points the finger at HP in a slightly shorter document, 130 pages. She accuses the company of integrating H.264 and H.265 codecs into their desktops and laptops. Talks had been ongoing since 2019 between the two parties on the subject, but HP refused to enter into a licensing agreement.
This is why today Nokia is launching legal proceedings against it, considering that HP has sold “ hundreds of millions of products illegally exploiting patented technology “. The company is accused of having benefited greatly from the technological advances made possible by Nokia without having paid royalties.
So, can we call Nokia patent troll ? The company still escapes the classic image of this type of entity, which makes its living from the exploitation of patents without manufacturing products. It is a company that shook up the industrial landscape in its time by offering highly innovative products. However, the current situation is still funny, although understandable. Nokia is no longer on the throne of the phone industry (and probably never will be again), and it probably wants to profit from its past innovations. However, the invention of the H.264 codec is not an exclusive patent belonging to it alone. This codec was also created thanks to the work of other actors such as Joint Video Team or the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group. Verifiable facts, which Nokia seems to have forgotten by taking action against HP and Amazon.
Source : StreamTV Insider
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