TiVo and Comcast both claim victory at ITC over Rovi patents

Both TiVo and Comcast have stated that they are happy with the outcome of the International Trade Commission’s (ITC’s) ruling that states the latter was in violation of one of the former’s patents.

As confirmed on June 04, Administrative Law Judge MaryJoan McNamara ruled that Comcast’s X1 platform infringes Rovi’s patents.

In specific, it was found that Comcast infringed on TiVo’s Patent No. 7,779,011 which specifies a: “Method and system for dynamically processing ambiguous, reduced text search queries and highlighting results thereof.”

These results mark the second favourable ITC result that TiVo has received, following a November 2017 ruling that Comcast had infringed on two Rovi patents around ‘remote record’ functionality. This resulted in Comcast removing the feature from their products.

“We are thrilled by yet another legal victory,” said Arvin Patel, EVP and chief intellectual property officer at Rovi Corporation, a TiVo company. “This decision demonstrates Comcast’s repeated infringement of Rovi’s patents. We hope that today’s decision will encourage Comcast to pay the necessary licensing fees so their customers can once again access advanced cable features.”

However, while it would seem to be better news for TiVo, Comcast claimed to be satisfied after McNamara dismissed two patent claims by TiVo.

A statement from Comcast read: “We view today’s initial determination to be a victory for Comcast because the administrative law judge found no violation as to two of the three patents addressed. We look forward to the full Commission’s review of the one remaining patent later this year, but we are confident, regardless, this ruling will not disrupt our service to our customers. Rovi also was unsuccessful on five other patents that it had previously withdrawn from this case.

“We will continue to resist Rovi’s efforts to force Comcast and our customers to make unreasonable payments for aging and obsolete patents.”