Advanced Television

ActiveVideo files for further FiOS injunction

August 15, 2011

By Colin Mann

ActiveVideo Networks, the creator of the CloudTV platform, has filed for an injunction against Verizon Communications to prevent what it says is the continued, unlawful use of ActiveVideo’s intellectual property in Verizon’s FiOS TV service.

The requested injunction, intended to protect ActiveVideo’s rights as the inventor of technology in the delivery of advanced television applications such as video-on-demand (VOD) and interactive TV, orders Verizon to “cease and desist from further infringement of ActiveVideo’s patents.”

At the beginning of August, ActiveVideo was awarded damages totalling $115 million in the jury trial of the company’s patent infringement suit against Verizon. The jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that Verizon had infringed on all asserted claims of the intellectual property owned by ActiveVideo during the deployment of Verizon’s FiOS television service.

“The decision of the court to uphold our intellectual property rights was very clear,” said Jeff Miller, president and CEO of ActiveVideo Networks. “We insist that Verizon immediately cease its unlawful use of the patented technology developed by the employees and investors of ActiveVideo Networks.”

ActiveVideo filed suit against Verizon in May, 2010, alleging that the Verizon FiOS system infringed on four patents for technology created, owned and used by ActiveVideo. The patents, which are fundamental to interactive television services such as video on demand, include:

– United States Patent No. 6,034,678, titled “Cable Television System With Remote Interactive Processor;”
– United States Patent No. 5,550,578, titled “Interactive And Conventional Television Information System;”
– United States Patent No. 6,100,883, titled “Home Interface Controller for Providing Interactive Cable Television;” and
– United States Patent No. 6,205,582, titled “Interactive Cable Television System with Frame Server.”

Having pioneered cloud-based delivery of VOD and interactive television, ActiveVideo has a substantial and fundamental portfolio of patents dating back to the early 1990s. The ActiveVideo CloudTV platform is currently deployed with major cable system operators, including Cablevision. It offers solutions for video on demand navigation, interactive games, and many other interactive services.

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