Federal Circuit denies re-trial in Apple sports streaming case

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has rejected a request by software company Emblaze to re-hear a dispute in which Apple was cleared of inducing ESPN and Major League Baseball (MLB) to infringe a streaming patent.

In a 3-0 judgment handed down yesterday, May 4, the court rejected Israel-based Emblaze’s request to re-hear the dispute.

The initial trial, at the US District Court for the Northern District of California, centred on a US patent issued to Emblaze in 2002.

The patent, US number 6,389,473, covered a process for delivering live-streaming video over wireless networks.

Emblaze, which initially demanded $511 million in damages, said Apple’s HLS streaming service was the same as its own technology but operating under a different name.

It added that Apple pushed sports organisations including MLB and ESPN to use its service, causing them to infringe the ‘473 patent. According to Emblaze, both organisations were encouraged to use Apple’s HLS service for two video-streaming programmes: “At Bat”, owned by MLB, and “WatchESPN”, operated by ESPN.

Organisations including the National Football League and the Professional Golf Association were also named.

In a decision handed down in July 2014, the jury found that the evidence against Apple wasn’t convincing enough to prove infringement of Emblaze’s patent.

In yesterday’s ruling the federal circuit affirmed the decision.