Mobile, video and AI technology R&D company InterDigital has been awarded an injunction against Disney by the Mannheim Local Division of the Unified Patent Court (UPC).
The company instigated proceedings against Disney, including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, in February 2025 over the use of video encoding techniques related to HEVC.
The UPC is a pan-European patent court that issues decisions that apply across multiple countries in the European Union (EU); the injunction against Disney applies to 11 EU countries. Disney can appeal the decision.
The judgment is the first injunction InterDigital has received from the UPC against Disney. Other injunctions have been issued by courts in Germany and Brazil for Disney’s infringement of InterDigital’s intellectual property related to high dynamic range (HDR) technology and additional compression technologies related to HEVC and AVC.
“Today’s streaming industry could not function without the advanced video technologies that InterDigital researchers have pioneered,” said Josh Schmidt, chief legal officer, InterDigital. “We remain committed to securing a long-term agreement with Disney, which reflects fair value for innovation that Disney uses every day, and which enables our ongoing investment in our research to develop next generation video technology.”
