(Bloomberg) -- A German court ruled that Nokia Oyj can stop Amazon.com Inc. from selling some of its Fire TV Stick products in Germany after the US company lost a patent case.
Nokia said it hasn’t yet decided to block the US tech giant from selling the devices. The product lines that would be impacted by an injunction are Amazon’s Fire TV Smart TV and Fire TV 4K Sticks, while other parts of the Fire lineup would remain on sale, an Amazon spokesperson said on Friday.
Amazon said it disagrees with the Munich regional court’s ruling and that the decision won’t affect existing customers. The company can appeal the decision.
Nokia filed patent complaints over Amazon’s use of the technology in the US, Germany, India, the UK, and the European Union last year. Nokia was one of the companies to set standards for video compression technology that helps streamline large video files crossing telecom networks. The company said in an October blog post that “there’s a mismatch between those who invested in developing the technologies that underpin streaming services and those who benefit the most.”
Amazon has argued that the fee it’s asking to license the patents is too high.
“We’re always willing to pay a fair price for patent licenses and we have worked with a number of companies to license video patents of this kind,” Amazon said in an emailed statement. “Nokia is demanding more than all those companies combined and has rejected our offer, which was fair and in line with market rates.”
Germany is Amazon’s second-largest market after the US, accounting for less than 7% of revenue last year.
(Updates with specifics on which Fire TV products would be affected in second paragraph)
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