Huawei Sues Disney for Patent Infringement

Recently, according to public records from the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in Europe, Huawei filed a lawsuit against Disney in January 2026.

The patent-in-suit is titled "Method and Apparatus for Encoding and Decoding Transform Coefficients," pertaining to the technical field of video codec and classified as a standard essential patent (SEP) for HEVC/H.265. It involves key technologies for the efficient compression and decompression of video data, serving as a foundation for ensuring high-quality, low-bandwidth transmission of video for streaming services like Disney+.

This marks the fourth HEVC-related patent infringement action initiated by Huawei at the UPC. Previously, Huawei filed similar lawsuits against companies such as Roku and Transsion, successfully leading to patent license agreements with them. This demonstrates Huawei's strategy of actively enforcing its video technology patent portfolio globally, particularly in Europe.

Meanwhile, Disney is not only involved in a dispute with Huawei. At the UPC, Disney also faces litigation initiated by InterDigital and, in February 2026, had injunctions issued against it in Germany and Brazil, forcing the removal of certain premium display features (such as Dolby Vision and HDR10+) from Disney+ subscriptions in Europe. Additionally, Disney had previously been in litigation with Adeia, but the parties reached a settlement in December 2025.

Some analysts suggest that this case may not be a simple dispute between two companies but could involve underlying efforts related to patent pool licensing. Huawei is a founding member of Avanci Video, a patent pool primarily targeting streaming platforms, while Disney, as a streaming giant, is a key licensing target of this pool. Therefore, this lawsuit may carry the intention of advancing standard-essential patent licensing negotiations within the industry.

The case has just entered the litigation procedure at the UPC. China Intellectual Property Lawyer News will continue to follow subsequent developments.