InterDigital VC Holdings, Inc. v. The Walt Disney Company. et.al.

This case before the Local Division Mannheim of the Unified Patent Court (case UPC_CFI_86/2025) involved a patent infringement action filed by InterDigital VC Holdings, Inc. (Claimant), a research and development company based in Wilmington, Delaware, against eleven entities belonging to The Walt Disney Company group (Defendants), including the parent company and various subsidiaries operating globally in film production, television, and digital video streaming services.

The patent-in-suit, EP 2 465 265, was granted on 28 November 2018 (filed 11 August 2010, claiming priority from a US provisional application of 12 August 2009) and relates to video encoding and decoding, specifically concerning intra prediction chroma coding. The patent was in force in several UPCA contracting member states including Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, and Sweden. A previously declared opt-out from UPC jurisdiction was withdrawn on 3 February 2025.

The infringement action targeted the Disney+ streaming service, which Defendants jointly provide to subscribers in UPCA contracting member states. Disney+ is a subscription-based Video-on-Demand service offering films, series, and other video content. As an exemplary attacked embodiment, Claimant identified Walt Disney Studios' 1937 animated film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," available via Disney+ in various bitstream formats including HEVC (H.265 standard) with a resolution of 640x360 pixels. Claimant analyzed the bitstream using "StreamEye" software.

Claims 1 and 15 of the patent-in-suit, on which the alleged direct infringement was based, cover methods in a video encoder and signals comprising video data, respectively, involving the determination of chroma partition types for intra prediction coding of blocks.

Claimant's legal predecessor had submitted a FRAND-licensing declaration to the ITU on 5 February 2017 regarding the patent-in-suit. However, Claimant maintained that asserted claims 1 and 15 did not fall within the scope of the HEVC standard and were therefore not standard-essential or FRAND-encumbered. In July 2022, InterDigital initially contacted Disney regarding licensing of its Video Patent Portfolio, and after an NDA was concluded, offered a licence covering video coding technology including the asserted patent.

The Defendants filed a counterclaim for revocation of the patent-in-suit.

The Court (Presiding Judge Tochtermann, Judge-rapporteur Sender, legally qualified Judge Severinsson, and technically qualified Judge Kretschmann) delivered its decision on 16 June 2026, following an oral hearing on 5 May 2026. The Court found in favor of the Claimant on the infringement action, ordering injunctive relief, recall/definite removal of infringing products, communication of information regarding acts of infringement, and granting declarations of liability for damages and infringement. The Court set penalty payments for violations (250,000 € per day for injunctive relief violations, 50,000 € per day for recall/removal violations, and 10,000 € per day for information disclosure violations).

The Counterclaim for revocation was dismissed, meaning the patent was upheld as valid. The infringement action was dismissed in all other respects. Defendants were ordered to bear the costs of the litigation. The value in dispute was set at 8,000,000 € for both the infringement action and the counterclaim for revocation. The injunctive relief and recall/removal orders were made enforceable only after the Claimant provided security of 8 million € in the form of a deposit or bank guarantee.