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What does Nokia’s HEVC (H.265) patent injunction mean for ASUS and Acer PC sales in Germany?
What happened (plain facts)
ASUS temporarily suspended its official website and online store in Germany after a Munich I Regional Court ruling tied to a patent dispute with Nokia.
The court also issued injunctions against Acer and ASUS in related Munich cases heard on January 22, 2026.
The dispute centers on video coding patents connected to the H.265/HEVC standard.
Why this triggered a sales stop
In the Munich cases, the court found infringement and treated the defendants as not “willing licensees” under FRAND expectations, which supported injunctive relief.
ASUS states the injunction affects select ASUS PCs and products that use HEVC, which is why the German site and store were paused.
JUVE Patent identifies the asserted right in the Munich court actions as EP 2 375 749 (EP 749).
What it means for owners (drivers and support)
When the German site is suspended, normal driver and BIOS download flows can break, especially if support pages route German IP traffic into the maintenance page.
ASUS says after-sales services in Germany remain fully operational and support continues in compliance with the court order.
Some users report they can still reach driver downloads via a VPN, suggesting access is geo-restricted rather than removed worldwide.
Practical steps to get drivers safely
- Use official ASUS support channels first (ticket, phone, or the MyASUS app), since ASUS states after-sales support remains active in Germany.
- Prefer signed drivers from official vendor sources (ASUS, Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Realtek) and use Windows Update for baseline drivers when a device is urgent.
- If a third-party mirror is the only option, verify file hashes when available, avoid “driver updater” tools, and keep a restore point before installs.