Direct Asus and Acer gaming PC sales blocked in Germany due to lawsuit from Finnish phone manufacturer Nokia

German PC gamers might struggle to pick up Acer or Asus gaming laptops and desktops for the foreseeable future, as a court ruling out of Munich has put a pause on direct sales. This is the latest development in a patent suit filed by Nokia against the two companies, as well as Chinese electronics company Hisense last year.

The lawsuit alleges that Acer and Asus’ PCs plus Hisense’s smart TVs infringe upon three of Nokia's patents relating to the H.265 (HEVC) video codec standard (via Juve Patent). HiSense sought to settle in January and, following a license agreement, Nokia has since withdrawn its lawsuit against the company. Acer and Asus are still fighting it out in the courts.

This latest Munich court ruling is an injunction against Acer and Asus, but not retailers. That means German gamers won't be able to buy directly from either company, but should still be able to find Acer and Asus machines elsewhere. Acer assured German-language outlet PC-Welt that its other products, from monitors to even e-scooters, were unaffected by this ruling.

Acer did not want to comment on ongoing legal proceedings, but it's worth noting the company has also filed its own separate suit against Nokia at the Munich Regional Court, though this instead regards wireless communication tech.

Legal proceedings between the three companies are not confined to the German court system either. Back in December, the UK High Court awarded Acer and Asus interim licenses, though Nokia has also filed a separate suit in the US alleging infringement of its Standard Essential Patents (SEPs). Basically, this is far from the end of it.

Aside from patent proceedings, Nokia has most recently earned headlines with 4G projects that shoot for the moon—literally.

On the other side of the suit, Asus has most recently been in the news for announcing an 'immediate internal review' of its 800-series motherboards following 'recent reports concerning Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPUs.' To elaborate on the company's vaguely worded statement on the issue, some PC gamers allege that popping a Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU into an AM5 socket motherboard has caused a whole host of issues, up to and including the death of the CPU itself.

Perhaps hitting the pause button on planned Asus purchases is not the worst thing a consumer could do right now.