InterDigital has escalated its dispute with Disney by filing two fresh actions before the Unified Patent Court, targeting the streaming giant’s deployment of the VP9 video‑encoding format and its “Up‑Next” recommendation feature. The filings arrive after a series of injunctions that have already constrained Disney’s use of HEVC technology across Europe.
In the Mannheim division, InterDigital lodged a preliminary injunction request under the case identifier UPC_CFI_3044/2026. The application centers on European Patent 2 465 265, the same claim that a panel led by Judge Peter Tochtermann affirmed as valid and infringed in a decision issued in June 2026. That earlier ruling set the groundwork for the current demand that Disney cease activities that allegedly breach the patent’s claims.
The Mannheim action focuses on Disney’s adoption of VP9, an open‑source codec introduced in the early 2010s. After the court’s determinations concerning HEVC, Disney shifted its German Disney+ Premium service to VP9 to restore 4K UHD playback. InterDigital argues that the VP9 algorithm incorporates core concepts originally devised by its engineers, thereby falling within the scope of the same patent that covers intra‑chroma coding. While VP9 enables the high‑resolution stream, it does not support HDR rendering and is not universally compatible with all consumer devices.
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Concurrently, a separate main proceeding was initiated in Düsseldorf, recorded as UPC_CFI_3043/2026, and anchored in European Patent 2 605 473. This patent protects the “Up‑Next” function that automatically queues the subsequent episode of a series, eliminating the need for viewers to handle back to a menu. The Düsseldorf filing extends the claim to cover activities in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, broadening the geographic reach of the litigation.
These two actions are components of a wider, coordinated campaign that InterDigital began in February 2025. Since that launch, the U.S.‑based firm has secured seven injunctions in jurisdictions that include Brazil, Germany, and the UPC, each addressing distinct aspects of video coding and streaming employed by Disney’s platforms such as Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu.
Earlier judgments from the Munich Regional Court contributed to the mounting pressure on Disney. The court issued three distinct injunctions covering patents related to subtitle overlay, HDR technology, and HEVC encoding methods. At the UPC, the Mannheim panel’s June 2026 decision found infringement of the intra‑chroma coding patent, while the Düsseldorf panel’s July ruling enforced an injunction covering EP 2 449 782 spanning eleven European countries. In both instances, the panels dismissed Disney’s claim that it was acting under a fair, reasonable, and non‑discriminatory (FRAND) licence obligation and labeled the company as an unwilling licensee.
