German Court Fines Netflix €7.05 Million for Continued Infringement of Broadcom HEVC Patent
PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 22, 2023 -- Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) announced today that the District Court in Munich, Germany fined Netflix €7.05 million for its infringement of a Broadcom patent. This fine was for Netflix’s continued infringement of the patent in deliberate violation of the court’s September 14, 2023 judgment that Netflix infringes the patent and must cease and desist all further infringement in Germany. The European patent at issue, EP 2 575 366, covers key features often used in HEVC/H.265 video coding, which Netflix uses to encode and stream Ultra HD content to subscribers.
The court set the fine at €150,000, or in the alternative 15 days of imprisonment for members of Netflix’s board of directors, for each of the 47 days that Netflix had infringed in violation of the cease-and-desist order. Netflix may appeal the fine, and Broadcom will seek additional penalties for Netflix’s continuing violation of that order.
Under section 890 of the German Civil Procedure Code, penalties for violating the cease-and-desist order include the following for each act of infringement: (1) government fines of up to €250,000; and/or (2) up to six months’ imprisonment for members of the infringer’s board of directors for a total of up to two years’ imprisonment.
“This ruling once again acknowledges the importance of Broadcom’s patented technology to successful streaming platforms like Netflix,” said Mark Terrano, vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s Intellectual Property and Licensing Division. “Since 2018, Netflix and Broadcom have been engaged in a wide-ranging patent dispute in which Broadcom has accused Netflix of infringing numerous U.S., German, and Dutch patents through its provision of its video streaming service.”
About Broadcom
Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) is a global technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies a broad range of semiconductor, enterprise software and security solutions. Broadcom's category-leading product portfolio serves critical markets including cloud, data center, networking, broadband, wireless, storage, industrial, and enterprise software. Our solutions include service provider and enterprise networking and storage, mobile device and broadband connectivity, mainframe, cybersecurity, and private and hybrid cloud infrastructure. Broadcom is a Delaware corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. For more information, go to www.broadcom.com.
Related Semiconductor IP
- Video CODEC - AV1, HEVC, AVC, VP9 (VP9: Decoder only)
- Video Decoder - AV1, HEVC, AVC, VP9
- Video Decoder - AV1, HEVC, AVC
- Video CODEC - AV1, HEVC, AVC, VP9 (VP9: Decoder only)
- Video Decoder - AV1, HEVC, AVC, VP9
Related News
- Qualcomm Files Patent Infringement Complaints against Meizu in China
- ZTE Sued for AVC Patent Infringement
- Huawei Sued for AVC Patent Infringement
- Tessera Files Legal Proceedings Against Samsung for Patent Infringement
Latest News
- Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 17.1% Year-to-Year in February
- Altera Starts Production Shipments of Industry’s Highest Memory Bandwidth FPGA
- Blumind reimagines AI processing with breakthrough analog chip
- 32-bit RISC-V processor based on two-dimensional semiconductors
- pSemi Files Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against Cirrus Logic and Lion Semiconductor