BT shrugs off Court of Appeal patent ruling

UK technology company British Telecom (BT) has shrugged off a court ruling which confirmed for the second time that it had infringed patents belonging to US broadband provider ASSIA.

Despite the set-back, BT said in a statement to WIPR that the English Court of Appeal’s decision would have “no material effect” on its operations.

In a ruling issued on Tuesday (November 11), the Court of Appeal upheld a previous High Court ruling that BT’s Infinity broadband system had infringed two European patents owned by ASSIA.

But BT said ASSIA’s claims in the case had been narrowed since it brought the initial lawsuit in 2011, meaning the final effect on the company was limited.

“They [ASSIA] had asserted three patents against BT but during the proceedings they had to narrow their allegations and withdraw one of these patents entirely,” a BT spokesman said.

“In January 2014, the High Court found BT was infringing on only a minor part of one patent, and the Court of Appeal, whilst invalidating the majority of the claims of ASSIA’s other patent, has ruled that BT’s network infringes what remains of the other patent.

“Although BT is disappointed with [Tuesday’s] ruling, we have made minor changes to our programming which means these two decisions will have no material effect on the operation of our networks.”

The patents at issue, EP 1,869,790 and EP 2,259,495, describe techniques for rapidly optimising millions of broadband connections without human intervention.

These techniques, ASSIA claimed, are used in its digital subscriber line technology which it licences to broadband companies in the US and Europe, including AT&T, Verizon and Sky.