Acer and Asus halt PC and laptop sales in Germany amid H.264 codec patent dispute — Nokia wins patent ruling, forcing tech giants to license HEVC codec

Acer and Asus have temporarily stopped selling desktop and laptop PCs in Germany after a German court granted Nokia an injunction prohibiting the sale of their products. According to HardwareLuxx [machine translated], the two manufacturers are prohibited from “offering, placing on the market, using, or importing or possessing such devices in Germany.”

While this might seem as though their products would disappear from store shelves overnight, that is unlikely, as German retailers are unaffected by the ruling. Most consumers would not experience this in the short term, as many retailers still have Asus and Acer computers in stock. However, given that the two companies cannot import new units to replenish their warehouses, we expect a shortage of these brands in the medium term, unless the German court concludes the lawsuit sooner or they reach a deal with Nokia.