Germany’s Federal Patent Court has issued a preliminary opinion finding that a Broadcom patent related to HEVC/H.265 video coding is valid.
It follows a judgment by the District Court of Munich in September that Netflix had infringed the patent.
The European patent at issue, EP 2 575 366 (366 Patent), covers key features of digital video processing often used in HEVC video coding.
The Munich District Court ruled that Netflix had infringed the patent through its transmission of HEVC video, which the streamer uses to provide Ultra HD content to its users.
Broadcom said it has filed a motion with the Munich Court seeking penalties for Netflix’s lack of compliance with the injunction. Under section 890 of the German Civil Procedure Code, penalties for violating the injunction include government fines of up to €250,000 for each act of infringement, such as each time Netflix sends an infringing video stream to a German subscriber; and/or up to six month’s imprisonment for members of the infringer’s board of directors.
“Broadcom is pleased that the German courts continue to recognise its patented contributions to the video technology used by successful streaming services like Netflix,” said Mark Terrano, vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s Intellectual Property and Licensing Division.
