Verizon Pays $250M To End TiVo Litigation, License Patents
Los Angeles – TiVo Inc. said Monday that it has reached a deal to settle its patent infringement lawsuit against Verizon Communications, under which Verizon will pay $250.4 million and the parties will enter a mutual patent licensing arrangement.
In addition to the guaranteed compensation, Verizon will also pay monthly license fees through July 2018 for each Verizon DVR subscriber in excess of certain pre-determined levels, TiVo said.
“We are pleased to reach an agreement with Verizon which underscores the significant value our distribution partners derive from TiVo’s technological innovations and our shareholders derive from our investments in protecting TiVo’s intellectual property,” TiVo CEO and President Tom Rogers said. “We also look forward to working together on a variety of future opportunities as we continue to expand the content choices available to TiVo subscribers.”
Verizon and TiVo are now exploring future distribution of Internet video services developed through Verizon’s joint venture with Redbox, by making content distributed via that service part of the content accessible to users of TiVo’s retail DVR products, the companies said.
As part of the settlement, TiVo and Verizon agreed to dismiss all pending litigation between the companies with prejudice. The parties also entered into a cross license of their respective patent portfolios in the advanced television field.
“As with prior settlements, we also benefit by being able to operate our business under license from Verizon and by avoiding future legal expenses that we would have incurred during and after trial,” Rogers said. “Furthermore, we believe this settlement positions us well with respect to future enforceability of our patents.”
TiVo sued Verizon in 2009 alleging it infringed TiVo’s patents for digital video recording technology. TiVo asserted three patents, including U.S. Patent Number 6,233,389, entitled “Multimedia Time Warping System,” U.S. Patent Number 7,529,465 B2, entitled “System for Time Shifting Multimedia Content Streams” and U.S. Patent No. 7,493,015 B1, entitled “Automatic Playback Overshoot Correction System.”
Verizon’s FiOS television product offers digital video recording, among other services, that infringe the three patents, according to TiVo. The case had been set to go to trial in October.