- Acer and Asus have run into legal issues over patents in Germany
- This has led to laptops from these PC makers no longer being sold
- On top of that, German buyers can’t access the local websites of these companies for their support needs with existing products
The situation with Acer and Asus laptops in Germany due to a legal issue over patents appears to have gotten worse, with a new and head-scratching development pertaining to getting support for PCs bought from these companies.
Tom’s Hardware noticed that German tech site ComputerBase highlighted the problem whereby the German websites for both Acer and Asus are now unavailable – and what’s more, it’s tricky to even find a workaround to swerve those blocks in that country.
This follows a legal ruling in Germany in a case which has seen Nokia taking both PC makers to court over their use of HEVC (a widely used video-compression standard). There are issues with how much Acer and Asus have paid for the use of this tech in their products — which are covered as SEPs or standard-essential patents — with Nokia believing the two companies haven’t contributed enough, and the German courts agreeing.
This affair has been colorfully described on Reddit as a “tire fire of monstrous proportions”, and it has led to a block on sales of Acer and Asus laptops in Germany, and seemingly a knock-on effect in support. Even though Asus has previously stated: “All after-sales services in Germany remain fully operational, and existing customers will continue to receive uninterrupted support in full compliance with the current court order. Asus is evaluating and pursuing further legal action to reach a fair resolution as soon as possible.”
After-sales support clearly isn’t available from the Asus German site, and neither can German buyers of the firm’s laptops access Asus sites in other regions. So, for example, if someone in Germany tries to access the Asus US site, they will still be blocked (redirected to the walled-off German local site, in fact).
Tom Guide’s points out that using a VPN to set yourself as appearing to be from another country won’t work to access the German Asus website either — it’s blocked at a global level.
You can still access Asus sites in other countries via a VPN from Germany, of course, which is the main workaround a lot of folks will doubtless be using.
However, as ComputerBase notes, it’s still possible to visit the Chinese Asus site from Germany via a Google search (without a VPN). Obviously, you’ll need to use a translated version of the website, but at least you can access something. Other reports on Reddit indicate that the Macedonian Asus website may also work for VPN-less German people.
For Acer, ComputerBase highlights the Taiwanese Asus website as functional for those in Germany (with no VPN).
Finally, note that some German people do seem to be able to actually access the Asus website in the country — but they’re seemingly in the minority. In most cases, it’s blocked.
Analysis: a frustrating situation that needs to be swiftly resolved
This is an unpleasant situation for German consumers, of course. While given the legal dispute, it’s understandable why sales — or rather, further shipments of Asus and Acer PCs, as this won’t affect laptops on shelves already — might be blocked, but the same should not hold true for support.
It’s bewildering, frankly, for people to have bought hardware that’s still under guarantee — and support — to suddenly not be getting a service they’ve paid for already. German people shouldn’t have to be scurrying off trying to find alternative obscure regional Asus websites that work for them, or be forced to download and use a free VPN (if they don’t already have one), to get basic support.
If you run into a problem with your laptop that needs, say, a new driver download, or some kind of update, it’s absolutely not okay to be unable to access that support just because of a legal dispute. One that has nothing to do with the transaction you entered into with a notebook maker.
Especially as Asus has said that existing buyers will receive “uninterrupted support” which clearly isn’t happening. Is this a consequence of the legal team at Asus instituting some caution-first policy regarding the patent case? Is it an oversight? I don’t know, and we can only guess — another possibility is that maybe the injunction’s wording is particularly broad, as Tom’s Hardware theorizes. Whatever the reason, it’s a perplexing situation to put it mildly.
Yes, it’s a Germany-only problem, and that country does have a stricter stance with complex patent issues like this. But it’s still a move that should worry all consumers in terms of how the basic rights in terms of receiving support for an expensive tech purchase have seemingly been put aside — at least for the moment.
Hopefully we’ll hear more from both laptop makers on the situation before long, because this needs resolving.
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