HEVC Advance said that certain patent owners in the HEVC Advance HEVC/H.265 patent pool have filed patent infringement suits in Germany against Xiaomi and Vestel.
The proceedings were filed with the Düsseldorf Regional Court in Germany against Vestel Germany GmbH and Xiaomi Technology Germany GmbH, Xiaomi Technology Netherlands B.V., Xiaomi Technology France S.A.S. and Xiaomi Inc.
Xiaomi has been accused of infringing patents essential to the HEVC/H.265 digital video coding standard. According to the complaints, Vestel offers televisions and set-top-boxes in Germany which incorporate HEVC/H.265 technology, and Xiaomi offers mobile products in Germany which incorporate HEVC/H.265 technology.
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HEVC Advance also announced that MAS Elektronik Aktiengesellschaft has become a licensee in the HEVC Advance patent pool after recent favorable judgments and granted injunctions received by HEVC Advance Licensors' GE Video Compression, LLC, Dolby International AB and Koninklijke Philips N.V. in patent infringement proceedings brought against MAS
A German court found that all the asserted patents were infringed by MAS' offering HEVC/H.265 compliant products (set-top boxes, TVs, and tablet computers) and found that the Advance license terms and royalty rates offered to MAS were fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory.
As a result of MAS becoming a licensee, all legal disputes related to patent infringement proceedings brought by the three plaintiffs have been resolved.
The latest lawsuits from HEVC Advance come after the organization earlier this year announced that the current royalty rates offered by its HEVC/H.265 Pool License will remain unchanged for its next five-year term, beginning January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2025.
The HEVC Advance pool has been consolidating HEVC patent owners and now has 29 licensors and approximately 11,000 essential patents. When the pool launched in 2016, it had six licensors and approximately 500 essential patents.