The District Court in Munich, Germany has fined Netflix €7.05 million for its infringement of a Broadcom patent.
The fine relates to Netflix’s “continued infringement” of the patent in deliberate violation of the court’s September 2023 judgment that the streamer must cease and desist all further infringement in Germany.
The European patent at issue, EP 2 575 366, covers key features often used in HEVC/H.265 video coding, which Netflix uses to encode and stream Ultra HD content to subscribers.
The court set the fine at €150,000, or in the alternative 15 days of imprisonment for members of Netflix’s board of directors, for each of the 47 days that the global streamer had infringed in violation of the cease-and-desist order.
Netflix may appeal the fine, and Broadcom said it will seek additional penalties for the continuing violation of the order.
“This ruling once again acknowledges the importance of Broadcom’s patented technology to successful streaming platforms like Netflix,” said Mark Terrano, vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s Intellectual Property and Licensing Division.
“Since 2018, Netflix and Broadcom have been engaged in a wide-ranging patent dispute in which Broadcom has accused Netflix of infringing numerous US, German, and Dutch patents through its provision of its video streaming service.”
