Disney: Dolby Vision HDR and 3D disabled in 11 European countries following a patent dispute

An ongoing patent dispute has resulted in the removal of Dolby Vision HDR and 3D from Disney+ in Germany, and now also from several other European Union countries. As you may recall, in early February, Dolby Vision HDR and 3D had already disappeared from the Disney+ app across Europe. At the time, the patent dispute was limited to Germany, but it wasn't until mid-March that Disney+ restored Dolby Vision HDR in other EU countries (see our news article "HDR, Dolby Vision, HDR10 and 3D on Disney+: The Return"). The problem is back in the news, and on a much larger scale. An injunction from the Unified Patent Court. In a press release published this week, the American company InterDigital announced it had won a legal battle over video patents before the Unified Patent Court (UPC). This time, the decision is not limited to Germany. The local Mannheim division ruled that InterDigital is entitled to obtain an injunction against Disney for infringing a patent covering certain video encoding techniques related to HEVC, and confirmed the validity of this patent. As the UPC is a pan-European patent court, the injunction against Disney logically extends to eleven EU countries. Disney can appeal the decision, but unless an amicable, and therefore financial, settlement is reached, the legal process could be lengthy. Ultra HD 4K resolution and HDR10 spared, Amazon Prime Video negotiated. As a domino effect, 3D films are also no longer available on the platform, as they are technically linked to Dolby Vision HDR. Fortunately for users, the standard Ultra HD 4K resolution and HDR10 format are still available. Faced with this situation, as we observed earlier this afternoon, Disney+ has already removed all references to Dolby Vision HDR from its pages in Europe (the format remains available in North America and other regions), as you can see in the Deadpool thumbnail above, which was available in Dolby Vision HDR just a few hours ago. A legal impasse that its direct competitor chose not to face… Amazon reached an agreement with InterDigital last week, allowing it to continue offering Dolby Vision HDR technology on Prime Video.