Foreign News
Amazon’s Commitment to German Customers: Prime Membership Explained
On Friday, the U.S. tech giant Amazon stated that video streaming services in Germany will proceed as normal, despite a German court‘s decision that it violated a patent held by the Finnish network equipment company, Nokia.
The regional court in the western city of Düsseldorf announced earlier on Friday that it has ruled Amazon can no longer operate its streaming services in their current technical form within the country. Failure to comply will result in fines of €250,000 ($259,000) for each instance of violation.
“Prime Video will comply with this local judgment and is currently evaluating its next steps. However, there is no risk of customers losing access to Prime Video,” an Amazon Prime Video spokesperson stated in an emailed response to Reuters.
Nokia welcomed the court’s decision, stating that its patent covers streaming features, such as those found in Amazon Prime Video, which are now subject to an injunction in Germany.
innovation ecosystem deteriorates when patent holders are not fairly compensated for the use of their technologies. This situation significantly complicates the ability of innovators to secure funding for the development of next-generation technologies, according to Arvin Patel, Nokia’s Chief Licensing Officer responsible for new segments, in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Amazon stated that the court ruling in Düsseldorf pertained only to a limited functionality of the service in Germany, specifically the ability to cast videos from the Prime Video application on one device to another, and did not affect the service as a whole.
Nokia
Last September, a regional court in Munich ruled in favor of Nokia, determining that Amazon’s Fire TV streaming devices infringed on Nokia’s patent.
Amazon stated at the time that it disagreed with the Munich court’s decision and anticipated that the situation would be resolved soon; however, it did not provide specific details.
Amazon announced that it has collaborated with several companies to license video patents.
“Nokia is demanding more than all those companies combined and has rejected our offer, which was fair and aligned with market rates,” Amazon stated in an email response to Reuters at the time.
