Netflix survives Dutch patent lawsuit
Video-streaming service Netflix has survived a scare after a patent infringement claim levied against it was thrown out by a Dutch court.
In a decision issued on Wednesday (December 17), the District Court of The Hague threw out a lawsuit brought by OpenTV and its parent company the Kudelski Group, which make software for digital TV services.
OpenTV had claimed Netflix infringed its patents, including one (EP 08,795,34) that covered “a system for providing direct automated access to an online information services provider”.
When it sued, in October last year, OpenTV said it was seeking, to “enjoin Netflix from further infringement” by its recently launched service in the Netherlands.
Had the case been successful it could have had wider reaching consequences for Netflix, which operates in several European countries.
But the court said the allegedly infringed patent’s claims were invalid because they are not inventive and not new.
Netflix is also facing a patent battle in the US after it was accused in March this year of infringing a patent formerly owned by British Telecom that is designed to protect copyrighted data from being redistributed.
The lawsuit was filed by Copy Protection, a limited liability company in Connecticut, at the US District Court for the District of Delaware.
Neither Netflix nor Kudelski Group immediately responded to a request for comment.
