Rovi accuses Comcast of infringing six patents
Rovi, a subsidiary of TiVo, has filed a patent infringement suit against telecommunications conglomerate Comcast.
The complaint, which was filed yesterday, April 22 at the US District Court for the Central District of California, said Comcast was wilfully infringing six of Rovi’s patents.
The patents in dispute (US numbers 8,001,564; 7,779,445; 7,386,871; 8,156,528; 7,301,900; and 7,200,855) cover technology related to cloud and multi-room digital video recorder (DVR) features.
Rovi said Comcast infringes these patents in its Xfinity 1 platform, which combines TV and internet access on multiple devices.
According to the complaint, Comcast previously paid Rovi more than $250 million for a fixed-term licence to its patent portfolio, which expired in 2016.
It said it offered to renew the licence but Comcast rejected its offer.
Rovi alleged that although it explained to Comcast that it would no longer have permission to use its patents, “Comcast chose to try to have its cake and eat it too”.
“While every one of Comcast’s competitors has paid a fair price for innovative technology, Comcast alone continues to use it for free,” Rovi’s complaint said.
In a statement to WIPR, Arvin Patel, chief IP officer at Rovi, said litigation was "always a last resort" but it will "continue to take every necessary legal action" to ensure it is compensated for its patented innovations.
"We have a responsibility to our stakeholders, licensees and customers to protect our intellectual property," Patel said.
Comcast said Rovi was delpoying "its increasingly obsolete patent portfolio in an unsuccessful litigation campaign seeking to charge Comcast and our customers for technology that Rovi did not invent".
"Rovi launched this campaign in April 2016 by asserting infringement of 15 patents—14 of which have been held to be invalid or not infringed by Comcast, or have been withdrawn by Rovi. While we haven’t had an opportunity to review Rovi’s latest complaint, we will continue to defend ourselves against allegations we determine to be meritless," Comcast said.
The action is the latest litigation involving TiVo, Rovi’s parent company, against Comcast since the licensing deal expired.
In September 2018, the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) invalidated one of TiVo’s patents (US number 9,172,987 B2), after Comcast argued that it was obvious in light of multiple earlier-registered patents.
According to Comcast, the earlier-registered patents would have taught or suggested the limitations required by the first 16 claims of the ‘987 patent, and a person skilled in the art would have combined the teachings of these patents.
TiVo opposed the allegations of obviousness, but the PTAB agreed with Comcast’s “well-reasoned” testimony, which was “rooted in the teachings” of the prior art.
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