Mapping the Industry's Major Litigation Landscape
Preview Research
The video streaming industry is entering its own version of the smartphone patent wars. Since 2022, nine major technology licensors have filed 19 significant patent actions against leading streaming platforms, including Netflix, Disney+, Roku, Meta, and FuboTV. The pace of litigation is not slowing: it appears to be accelerating.
This research piece is part of Tech+IP’s research collection on video streaming.
Key Takeaways
Disney+ Is the Most Sued Streaming Platform
No streaming platform has a larger legal bullseye on its back than Disney+. With five active suits (brought by Adeia, InterDigital, Velos Media, and Huawei) Disney's streaming empire carries the most concentrated patent exposure in the industry. The most consequential case so far has come from InterDigital, which secured multiple injunctions against Disney in Germany and Brazil during 2025 and 2026. Following the German rulings, Disney+ disabled Dolby Vision in Germany and later in several European countries, a move Disney later linked to the patent dispute. Reports also indicated impacts on HDR10+ availability, although the scope of those changes has been reported inconsistently.
Huawei Is the Most Active Licensor Right Now
With four actions filed in 2025 and 2026 alone (against Roku, Disney+, Meta, and RTL Group) Huawei has emerged as one of the most aggressive new entrants in streaming patent enforcement. Notably, Huawei is not going after just the obvious American giants. Its suit against RTL Group signals a deliberate expansion into European streaming, using the Unified Patent Court as an enforcement vehicle capable of reaching across multiple EU markets in a single action.
No Streamer is Immune
Every major streaming platform in this analysis has at least one suit running against it. The breadth of targets makes clear that this is an industry-wide phenomenon, not a dispute between two companies. Nor are the plaintiffs fringe actors. The companies bringing these cases are global technology firms and established IP licensors with deep patent portfolios and the resources to pursue multi-jurisdictional campaigns simultaneously.
Conclusion
The cost of streaming, for both platforms and their consumers, increasingly includes growing patent licensing costs on the fundamental technologies that make it work. As codec standards evolve toward AV1 and beyond, and as new licensors expand their enforcement reach, the legal complexity surrounding streaming technology is only going to grow. Platforms that have not yet developed a proactive licensing strategy may find themselves reacting to litigation rather than managing risk on their own terms.
*Research note: Litigations exclude NPEs (“patent trolls") and minor streaming players. Litigations cover the period from 2022 to June 2026.
Related Research
This research is part of Tech+IP's broader work on video streaming, codecs, and technology licensing. Upcoming publications include an expanded streaming patent landscape mapping more than 100 litigations across the global streaming ecosystem, together with a dedicated report examining the emerging AV1 licensing ecosystem and its implications for platforms, device manufacturers, and patent holders.
The full AV1 report is available exclusively to TIP-X members. For information on access, please contact info@techip.ai.
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