TiVo is after Comcast again in yet another lawsuit. Yesterday, TiVo filed lawsuits in Massachusetts and California lagging that Comcast’s X1 set-top boxes are infringing on at least eight of its patents, Business Insider reports.
“Through decades-long investment in research and development, Rovi has created innovations that delight consumers in their day-to-day entertainment experience. Our commitment to our customers and stockholders compels us to protect these valuable inventions from unlicensed use,” TiVo CEO Enrique Rodriguez said in a statement.
The patents that TiVo is using to accuse Comcast of infringement in its latest lawsuits are related to features like pausing and resuming programs on different devices, DVR recording, search and voice functionality and restarting live programs already in progress. TiVo has said that it will also file suits with ITC regarding these patents in question.
TiVo was bought by Rovi in 2016. At the time, both companies decided to take the name TiVo due to it being more recognizable. After merging, they hold quite a significant patent portfolio with over 6,000 patents.
In November 2017, the International Trade Commission found Comcast to have violated two of TiVo’s patents and as such ordered an import ban on X1 boxes that violated those patents. Comcast proceeded to disabling certain features that infringed on TiVo’s intellectual property and is in the process of appealing that ruling from ITC.
A Comcast spokesperson commented and told us, “Comcast engineers independently created our X1 products and services, and through its litigation campaign against Comcast, Rovi seeks to charge Comcast and its customers for technology Rovi didn’t create. Rovi’s attempt to extract these unfounded payments for its aging and increasingly obsolete patent portfolio has failed to date. And as we have in its other suits, we will continue to aggressively defend ourselves.”
