Patents get bought and sold all the time, but this one comes with a twist. Dolby recently picked up a voice technology patent from another company – and it did not sit on it for long. Just months later, Dolby is using that same patent to take phone maker Nothing to court in Europe
On 10 August 2026, Dolby International AB filed a lawsuit against three companies linked to the phone maker Nothing. The case was filed at the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in Munich, Germany. Dolby says Nothing is using one of its patent technology without permission.
This is a big moment because it is the first time Dolby has taken a case to the UPC over a patent linked to EVS, a technology used for voice calls. Here are the key facts:
| Case number | UPC-CFI-0002872/2026 |
| Who is suing | Dolby International AB |
| Who is being sued | Nothing Group |
| Patent in the case | EP3152755A1 – A Method For Choosing Between Time-Domain And Frequency-Domain Audio Coding |
| Court | Munich Local Division, Unified Patent Court (UPC) |
| Filed on | 10 August 2026 |
| Case stage | Written Phase |
What Is the Patent About?
The patent, called EP3152755A1, is about a small but important part of how phones compress voice during a call. When you speak into a phone, the audio has to be squeezed down (compressed) so it can travel over the network without using too much data. This patent covers a method for deciding which of two compression styles to use for a piece of sound – called time-domain coding and frequency-domain coding.
This decision step is part of a wider voice technology called EVS (Enhanced Voice Services). EVS is used for clear-sounding calls on 4G and 5G networks (VoLTE and VoNR), and it is also used for phone calls made through wireless earbuds.
The Twist: This Patent Used to Belong to Huawei
Here is the interesting part. This patent was not originally Dolby’s. It was first owned by Huawei Technologies. Patent records show the patent was formally transferred to Dolby’s Beijing unit, with the transfer effective 26 November 2025 and officially recorded on 2 December 2025.
So Dolby only became the owner of this patent a few months before suing Nothing with it.
This matters because Dolby and Huawei are not strangers. Both companies are founding members of a patent group called the Via LA pool, which was set up in December 2024 to license EVS and a related technology called IVAS to phone makers. Huawei is both a founding member of that pool and a company that pays to use patents from it.
So Dolby appears to be building its own private collection of voice-technology patents by buying them from other companies in the same industry group – and then using individual patents from that collection to sue companies directly, instead of only relying on the shared group license.
The Court’s First Move: Keeping Some Details Private
On 17 August 2026, just one week after Dolby filed the case, the court issued its first order. This was not a ruling on who is right or wrong. It was a smaller, procedural order about confidentiality – deciding what information in the case should be kept private for now.
Dolby had asked the court to protect certain parts of its written filing from public view. The court agreed, on a temporary basis, while it waits to hear from Nothing before making a final decision.
In plain terms, this tells us something important: before Dolby went to court, there had already been talks between Nothing and the Via LA licensing group about paying to use these patents. Those talks are now part of the case file, but the public cannot see the details of how they went – at least not yet.
The order also sets out the rules for handling this private information while the case continues:
- Only the people directly involved in the case (the parties, their lawyers, and approved experts) can see the protected material.
- Nobody involved may share or use that information outside the case.
- If a summary of the court’s decision is published later, the private parts must be blanked out first.
- Anyone who breaks these confidentiality rules could be fined up to €250,000 per violation.
- Nothing and the other defendants have 14 days from the order to tell the court if they disagree with keeping this information private.
So at this early stage, this order does not decide the actual patent dispute. It simply keeps the licence-negotiation history between Nothing and Via LA out of public view while the case moves forward.
Why Three Companies Are Being Sued Together
Dolby did not sue just one company. It named three, because each one plays a different role in how Nothing’s products reach customers in Europe:
- Nothing Technology Limited (based in the UK) – designs the phones and earbuds, and builds the disputed technology into the product software.
- Nothing Technology B.V. (based in the Netherlands) – handles selling Nothing products through shops across Europe.
- GameGeek Limited (based in Hong Kong) – runs the official Nothing online store for Europe and ships products directly to customers there.
By naming all three, Dolby covers the whole chain – the company that builds the technology, the company that sells it in stores, and the company that sells it online.
What to Watch Next
- Whether Dolby settles this case through a licence deal, or pushes for a court ruling.
- Whether Nothing argues that Dolby’s licence terms were unfair, the way HMD did in its Chinese case.
- Whether Dolby brings more lawsuits using other patents it may have bought from Huawei or other pool members.
Conclusion
Dolby has sued Nothing at Europe’s patent court, using a voice-technology patent it only recently bought from Huawei. The case is Dolby’s first EVS-related UPC lawsuit, it names three connected Nothing companies, and it fits into a wider, fast-growing wave of voice-patent lawsuits happening in both Europe and China.
Cases like this happen more often than you’d think. If you want help tracking UPC litigation, checking who owns a patent, or watching a company’s patent activity, GreyB can help.
But tracking an active case is only part of the picture. The bigger question is what could happen next.
GreyB can help you identify third-party patents that may create litigation risks for your products, uncover companies that may be operating within the scope of your patents, and spot potential enforcement, licensing, or monetization opportunities before they become obvious.
Whether you want to assess potential infringement threats, monitor competitor portfolios, investigate patent ownership, track global litigation activity, or identify where your own patents could create leverage, we can conduct a focused study around your business and technology.
Want to know where your next patent threat or enforcement opportunity could come from? Talk to GreyB.
